SCHOOLS,  SCHOOL-BOOKS, 

AND 

SCHOOLMASTERS. 


SCHOOLS 
SCHOOL-BOOKS 


AND 


S 


CHOOLMASTERS 

(Contribution  to  tfje  Distort)  of  ©bucational 
in  ©reat  Britain 


BY 

w.  CAREW  HAZLITT 


NEW    YORK 

G.    E.    STECHERT  &  Co 

1905 


M 
,\° 


PREFACE. 


ALTHOUGH  the  commencing  section  has  been 
thrown  into  the  introductory  form,  it  has 
seemed  to  me  necessary  to  annex  a  few  lines 
by  way  of  preface,  in  order  to  explain  that  the 
following  pages  do  not  pretend  to  deal  ex- 
haustively with  the  subject  of  which  they  treat, 
but  offer  to  public  consideration  a  series  of 
representative  types  and  selected  specimens. 
To  have  barely  enumerated  all  the  authors 
and  works  on  British  education  would  fill  a 
volume  much  larger  than  that  in  the  hands 
of  the  reader. 

My  main  object  has  been  to  trace  the  sources 
and  rise  of  our  educational  system,  and  to  pre- 
sent a  general  view  of  the  principles  on  which 
the  groundwork  of  this  system  was  laid.  So 


255820 


vi  Preface 

far  as  I  am  capable  of  judging,  the  narrative 
will  be  found  to  embody  a  good  deal  that  is 
new  and  a  good  deal  that  ought  to  be  inter- 
esting. 

The  bias  of  the  volume  is  literary,  not  biblio- 
graphical; but  its  production  has  involved  a 
very  considerable  amount  of  research,  not  only 
among  books  which  proved  serviceable,  but 
among  those  which  yielded  me  no  contribution 
to  my  object. 

W.  C.  H. 

BARNES  COMMON,  SURREY, 

November  1887. 


A  SELECT   LIST 

OF 

Utorte  0r  (Mitians 

BY 

WILLIAM  CAREW  HAZLITT 

OF   THE   INNER    TEMPLE 

CHRONOLOGICALLY  ARRANGED. 


1.  History  of  the  Venetian  Republic;  Its  Rise,  its  Greatness,  and 
its  Civilisation.  'With  Maps  and  Illustrations.  4  vols.  8vo. 
Smitlt,  Elder  <y  Cn.  1SCO. 

A  new  edition,  entirely  recast,  with  important  additions, 
in  '3  vols.  crown  8vo,  is  in  readiness  for  the  press. 

12.  Old  English  Jest-Books,  1525-1639.  Edited  with  Introductions 
and  Notes.  Facsimiles.  '6  vols,  12mo.  18(54. 

3.  Remains  of  the  Early  Popular  Poetry  of  England.    With  Intro- 

ductions and  Notes.    4  vols.     12mo.      Woodcut  x.     JSC/i-C-O. 

4.  Handbook  to  the  Early  Popular,     Poetical,  and  Dramatic  Lite- 

rature of  Great  Britain.     Demy  8vo.     1807.    Pp.  714,  in  two 
columns. 

5.  Bibliographical  Collections  and  Notes.    1807-76.    Medium  8vo. 

1870. 

This  volume  comprises  a  full  description  of  about  €000 
Early  English  books  from  the  books  themselves.  It  is  a 
irequel  and  companion  to  No.  4.  See  also  No.  0  infra. 

0.  Bibliographical  Collections  and  Notes.  SECOND  SKRIES.  1876-82. 
Medium  Svo.  lh>2. 

Uniform  with  First  Series.  About  10,000  titles  on  the 
same  principle  as  before. 

"Mr.  W.  C.  Hazlitt's  second  series  of  Bibliographical 
Collections  and  Notes  (Quaritch)  is  the  result  of  many 
years'  searches  among  rare  books,  tracts,  ballads,  and 
broadsides  by  a  man  whose  specialty  is  bibliography,  and 
who  has  thus  produced  a  volume  of  high  value.  If  any  one 


(    2    ) 

will  read  through  the  fiftyfour  closely  printed  columns 
relating  to  Charles  I.,  or  the  ten  and  a  half  columns  given 
to  'London'  from  1541  to  1794,  and  recollect  that  these  are 
only  a  supplement  to  twelve  columns  in  Hazlitt's  Handbook 
and  five  and  a  half  in  his  first  Collections,  he  will  get  an 
idea  of  the  work  involved  in  this  hook.  Other  like  entries 
are  'James  I.,'  'Ireland,'  'France,'  'England,'  'Elizabeth,' 
'Scotland'  (which  has  twenty-one  and  a  half  columns),  and 
so  on.  As  to  the  curiosity  and  rarity  ot  the  works  that  Mr. 
Hazlitt  has  catalogued,  any  one  who  has  been  for  even 
twenty  or  thirty  years  among  old  books  will  acknowledge 
that  the  strangers  to  him  are  far  more  numerous  than  the 
acquaintances  and  friends.  This  second  series  of  Collections 
will  add  to  Mr.  Hazlitt's  well-earned  reputation  as  a  biblio- 
grapher, and  should  be  in  every  real  library  through  the 
English-speaking  world.  The  only  thing  we  desiderate  in 
it  is  more  ot  his  welcome  marks 'and  names,  B.  M.,  Brit- 
well,  Lambeth,  &c.,  to  show  where  all  the  books  approa- 
ching rarity  are.  The  service  that  these  have  done  in  Mr. 
Hazlitt's  former  books  to  editors  for  the  Early-English  Text, 
New  Shakspere,  Spenser,  Hunterian,  and  other  societies, 
has  been  so  great  that  we  hope  he  will  always  say  where 
he  has  seen  the  rare  books  that  he  makes  entries  of." — 
Academy,  August  26,  1882. 

7.  Bibliographical  Collections  and  Notes.    A  THIRD  AND  FINAL 

SERIES.    1886.    8vo. 

Uniform  with  the  First  and  Second  Series.  This  volume 
contains  upwards  of  3000  articles.  All  three  are  now  on 
sale  by  Mr.  Quaritch. 

8.  Memoirs  of  William  Hazlitt.    With  Portions  of  his  Correspon- 

dence. Portraits  after  Miniatures  by  John  Hazlitt.  2 
vols.  8vo.  1867. 

During  the  last  twenty  years  the  Author  has  been  inde- 
fatigable in  collecting  additional  information  for  the  Life  of 
Hazlitt,  1867,  in  correcting  errors,  and  in  securing  all  the 
unpublished  letters  which  have  come  into  the  market,  some 
of  great  interest,  with  a  view  to  a  new  and  improved  edi- 
tion. 

!>.  Inedited  Tracts.  Illustrating  the  Mariners,  Opinions,  and 
Occupations  of  Englismen  during  the  16th  and  17th  Centuries, 
1586-1618.  With  an  Introduction  and  Notes.  Facsimiles. 
4to  1868. 

10.  The  Works  of  Charles  Lamb.  Now  first  collected,  and  entirely 
rearranged.  With  Notes.  4  vols.  8vo.  E.  Moxon  &  Co. 
1868-69. 


<     3    ) 

11.  Letters  of  Charles  Lamb.    With  some  Account  of  the  Writer, 

his  Friends  and  Correspondents,  and  Explanatory  Notes. 
By  the  late  Sir  Thomas  Noon  Talfourd,  D.  C.  L.,  one  of  his 
Executors.  An  entirely  new  edition,  carefully  revised  and 
greatly  enlarged  by  W.  Carew  Hazlitt.  2  vols.  1886.  Post 
8vo. 

Ha.  Mary  and  Charles  Lamb.    New  Facts  and  Inedited  Remains. 

8vo.     Woodcuts  and  Facsimiles.  1871. 
The  groundwork  of  this  volume  was  an    Essay   by   the 
writer  in  Macmillan's  Magazine. 

12.  English  Proverbs  and  Proverbial  Phrases.    Arranged  alpha- 

betically and  annotated.  Medium  8vo.  1869.  Second  Edition, 
corrected  and  greatly  enlarged,  crown  8vo  .  1882. 

13.  Narrative  of  the  Journey  of  an  Irish  Gentleman  through  En- 

gland in  1751.    From  a  MS.    With  Notes.    8vo.    1869. 

14.  The  English  Drama  and  Stage,   under  the  Tudor  and  Stuart 

Princes.    1547-1664.    With  an  Introduction  and  Notes.  8vo. 
1869. 
A  series  of  reprinted  Documents  and  Treatises. 

15.  Popular  Antiquities    of  Great  Britain.    I.   The  Calendar.    II. 

Customs  and  Ceremonies.  III.  Superstitions.  3  vols. 
Medium  8vo  1870. 

Brand's  Popular   Antiquities,  by  Ellis,   1813,    taken  to 
pieces,  recast,  and  enormously  augmented. 

16.  Inedited  Poetical  Miscellanies.  1584-1700.     Thick  8vo.   W7ith 
Notes  and  Facsimiles.    50  copies  privately  printed.    1870. 

17.  Warton's  History  of  English  Poetry.   An  entirely  new  edition, 

with  Notes  by  Sir  F.  Madden,  T.  Wright,  F.  J.  Furnivall, 
II.  Morris,  and  others,  and  by  the  Editor.  4  vols.  Medium 
8vo.  1871. 

18.  The  Feudal  Period.    Illustrated  by  a  Series  of  Tales  (from  Le 

Grand\    12mo.    1874. 

ID.    Prefaces,  Dedications,  and  Epistles.  Prefixed  to  Early  English 
Books.     1540-1701     8vo    1S74. 
50  copies  privately  printed. 

20.  Blount's  Jocular  Tenures.  Tenures  of  Land  and  Customs  of 

Manors.  Originally  published  by  Thomas  Blount  of  the 
Inner  Temple  in  1079.  An  entirely  new  and  greatly  enlar- 
ged edition  by  W.  Carew  Hazlill,  of  that  Ilk.  Medium  8vo 
1874. 

21.  Dodsley's  Select  Collection  of  Old  Plays.  A  new  edition,  great- 

ly enlarged,  corrected  throughout,  and  entirely  rearran- 
ged. With  a  Glossary  by  Dr.  Richard  Morris.  15  vols. 
8vo.  1874-76. 


(  •*  ) 


22.  Fairy  Tales,  Legends,  and  Romances.    Illustrating  Shakespear 

and  other  Early  English  Writers.    12mo.    1875. 

23.  Shakespear's  Library  :  A  Collection  of  the  Novels,  Plays,  and 

other  Material  supposed  to  have  been  used  by  Shakespear. 
An  entirely  new  edition.  6  vols.  12mo.  1875. 

24.  Fugitive  Tracts  (written  in  verse)  which  illustrate  the  Condi- 

tion of  Religious  and  Political  Feeling  in  England,  and  the 
State  of  Society  there,  during  two  centuries.  1493-1700.  2 
vols.  4to.  50  copies  privately  printed.  1875. 

25.  Poetical  Recreations.    By  W.  C.  Hazlitt.    50  copies  printed. 

12mo.    1877. 

A  new  edition,   revised  and  very  greatly  enlarged,  is  in 
preparation. 

20.    The  Baron's  Daughter.     A  Ballad.      75  copies  printed.     4to 

•1877. 

27.  The  Essays  of  Montaigne.  Translated  by  C.  Cotton.     An  enti- 

rely new  edition,  collated  with  the  best  French  text.     With 
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The  only  library  edition. 

28.  Catalogue    of   the  Huth   Library.    [English  portion.]    5  vols. 

Large  Svo.    lSh'0.     200  copies  printed. 

29.  Offspring    of  Thought  in    Solitude.      Modern    Essays.      18S'i. 

Svo,  pp.  384. 

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30.  Old  Cookery  Books  and  Ancient  Cuisine.    12mo.    1886. 

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8vo,  pp.  32. 

"Who  would  not  grieve,  if  such  a  man  there  be? 
Who  would  not  weep,  if  Atticus  were  he?''  — POPE. 

32.  Gleanings  in  Old  Garden  Literature.    12mo.    1SS7. 

33.  Schools,  School-books,  and  Schoolmasters.     A  Contribution 

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34.  Studies    in   Jocular    and    Anecdotal    Literature.     12mo.      hi 

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(    5    ) 

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vellum.  Roy.   8vo.    pp.  298.    1896. 

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Particulars.    Gr.    8vo.    pp.    248.    1895. 

42.  Four  Generations  of  a  Literary  Family  :  Hazlitts  in  England, 

Ireland,  America  :  their  Friends  and  Fortunes,  1725-1896. 
Portraits  from  Miniatures  by  John  Hazlitt.  2  vols.  8vo. 
pp.  528.  1897. 

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51.  Shakespeare  Himself  and   his  Work  :   Study.    2nd  ed.   8vo. 

1903. 


SCHOOLS,  SCHOOL-BOOKS, 


AND 


SCHOOLMASTERS. 


Introductory  survey  ol' the  old  system  of  teaching — Salutary 
influence  of  the  Church — Education  of  Englishmen  in 
their  own  homes  and  on  the  Continent— Severity  of 
early  discipline — Dr.  Busby. 

I.  A  FAIR  body  of  authentic  evidence  has  been 
collected,  and  is  here  before  us,  exhibiting  and 
illustrating  the  origin  and  progress  of  the  edu- 
cational movement,  and  the  opportunities 
which  our  ancestors  acquired  and  improved 
for  mental  cultivation  and  literary  development. 

An  attentive  consideration  of  the  ensuing 
pages  may  bring  us  to  the  conclusion  that  the 

A 


2  Schools,  School-Books, 

English  and  Scots,  at  all  events,  of  former 
days  were  not  ill  provided  with  facilities  for 
mastering  the  rudiments  of  learning,  and  that 
the  qualifications  necessary  and  sufficient  for 
ordinary  persons  and  careers  were  within  the 
reach  of  all  men,  and,  as  time  went  on,  women, 
of  moderate  intelligence. and  resources. 

Moreover,  when  the  taste  for  a  more  elabo- 
rate and  extended  system  of  training,  and  for 
a  circle  of  accomplishments,  set  in  with  the 
Stuarts,  the  appliances  of  every  kind  for  grati- 
fying and  promoting -it  were  superabundant  ; 
and  London  and  other  cities  swarmed  with 
experts,  who  either  attached  themselves  to 
academies  or  worked  on  their  own  account, 
waiting  on  their  clients  or  receiving  them  at 
their  own  places  of  business.  The  youth  of 
family  who  had  passed  from  the  grammar- 
school  or  the  tutor  to  the  University,  enjoyed, 
from  the  moment  when  professors  began  to 
flock  hither  from  France,  Italy,  and  Germany 
as  to  the  b?st  market,  greatly  increased  faci- 
lities for  completing  themselves  in  special 
departments  of  science,  as  well  as  in  such 
exercises  as  were  thought  to  belong  to  gentle- 


and  Schoolmasters.  3 

men.  As  our  intercourse  with  the  Continent 
became  more  regular  and  general,  its  fashions 
and  sentiments  were  gradually  communicated 
to  us,  and  we  began  to  overcome  our  old 
insular  prejudices.  A  familiarity  with  other 
languages  and  literatures  than  our  own,  and 
with  the  pursuits  and  amusements  of  countries 
which  a  narrow  strip  of  sea  separated,  was  the 
beneficial  consequence  of  the  French  and  Ital- 
ian sympathies  which  the  union  of  the  crowns, 
after  the  death  of  the  last  of  the  Tudors,  intro- 
duced into  England. 

We  are  scarcely  entitled  to  plume  ourselves 
on  the  elevation  from  which  it  is  our  privilege 
to  look  back  on  obsolete  educational  theories 
and  principles.  The  change  which  we  witness 
is  of  recent  date  and  of  political  origin.  It  is 
within  an  easily  measurable  number  of  years 
that  the  democratic  wave  has  loosened  and 
shaken  the  direct  clerical  jurisdiction  over  our 
schools  and  our  studies.  What  more  signifi- 
cant fact  can  there  be,  in  proof  of  the  conser- 
vative bigotry  of  those  who  so  long  exercised 
control  in  schoolroom  and  college,  that  a 
primer  compiled  in  the  first  quarter  of  the 


4  Schools,   School-Books, 

sixteenth  century  was  still  substantially  the 
standard  authority  less  than  a  hundred  years 
since  ? 

When  we  regard  a  History  of  English  Litera- 
ture, and  the  works  which  either  constitute  its 
principal  strength  and  glory,  or  even  such  as, 
rather  from  the  circumstances  connected  with 
them  than  their  own  intrinsic  importance,  lend 
to  it  a  certain  incidental  or  special  value,  it 
becomes  natural  to  inquire  by  what  process  or 
course  of  training  the  men  and  women  whose 
names  compose  the  roll  of  fame  became,  or 
were  aided  at  least  in  becoming,  what  they  were 
and  remain  ? 

As  for  the  women,  they  followed  their  studies 
at  home  under  governesses  and  professors;  and 
Ballard's  volume  on  Learned  Ladies  will  shew 
what  was  capable  of  accomplishment  in  a  few 
isolated  and  conspicuous  cases,  before  any 
scheme  for  the  higher  education  of  the  sex  had 
been  broached.  But  it  is  with  the  men  that  I 
have  more  particularly  to  deal. 

Every  eminent  Englishman  who  has  done 
more  or  less  to  augment  and  enrich  our  literary 
stores,  and  an  infinitely  greater  number  who 


and  Schoolmasters.  5 

have  adopted  other  vocations,  passed  of  course 
through  the  scholastic  ordeal.  They  were  sent 
to  school,  and  perhaps  to  college  ;  and  they 
had  books  put  into  their  hands,  as  our  boys 
have  books  put  into  theirs — books  written  by 
the  scholars  of  the  time  up  to  the  knowledge 
and  opinion  of  the  time. 

With  the  fewest  exceptions,  the  boys  was  the 
father  of  the  man,  and  what  he  had  himself 
acquired  he  was  content  to  see  his  children 
acquire.  There  were  centuries  during  which 
the  lines  of  instruction  and  the  scope  of  culture 
varied  little. 

The  greater  part  of  our  early  English  teachers 
came  across  the  sea,  or  had  been  educated 
there  ;  our  best  books  were  modelled  on  those 
of  French  or  Roman  grammarians,  and  the  im- 
provement in  our  system  was  due,  when  it 
came,  to  the  gymnasia  and  academies  of  the 
Continent. 

II.  We  all  know  that  the  Church  in  early 
times,  before  it  became  a  conflicting  and  mis- 
chievous influence,  did  much  valuable  work 
toward  the  developmentand  progress  of  litera- 


0  Schools,  School-Books, 

ture  and  art,  and  was  instrumental  in  preserv- 
ing many  monuments  of  ancient  learning  and 
genius,  which  might  otherwise  have  perished. 
But  the  strong  clerical  element  in  the  old 
social  system  operated  beneficially  on  our 
English  civilisation  in  another  equally  impor- 
tant way. 

For  a  vast  length  of  time  the  schools  attached 
to  the  monasteries  were  not  only  the  best,  but 
almost  the  sole  seminaries  where  an  education 
of  the  higher  class  could  be  obtained.  They 
were,  in  point  of  fact,  the  precursors  of  the 
similar  establishments  subsequently  attached  to 
some  of  the  colleges;  and  it  is  further  to  be 
remarked,  that,  besides  the  ordinary  features  of 
a  mediaeval  scholastic  curriculum,  they  taught 
music  for  the  sake  of  keeping  a  constant  suc- 
cession of  candidates  for  the  choir  of  the  chapel. 
It  was  through  the  monks  and  through  an 
ecclesiastical  channel  that  we  derived  both  our 
most  ancient  schools  of  music  and  our  primitive 
educational  machinery,  the  two  alike  destined  to 
become  sensible,  in  course  of  time,  of  a  potent 
secular  influence,  scarcely  imaginable  by  their 
monastic  institutors. 


and    Schoolmasters.  1 

Bishop  Percy  says  that  the  system  of  instruc- 
tion appears  to  have  consisted  of  learning  the 
Psalms,  probably  by  heart,  and  acquiring  the 
principles  of  music,  singing,  arithmetic,  and 
grammar.  Some  of  the  boys,  he  adds,  who  had 
made  the  art  of  music  their  profession,  assisted 
in  later  life  at  the  religious  services  on  special 
occasions,  while  others  relinquished  their  origi- 
nal callings,  and  sought  their  fortune  as  min- 
strels and  instrumental  players. 

Altogether,  it  is  evident  that  music  and  other 
branches  of  a  liberal  training  were  primarily 
indebted  at  the  outset,  and  long  subsequently, 
for  their  encouragement  and  diffusion  to  Hie 
only  class  which  was  at  the  period  capable  of 
undertaking  tuition.  We  have  to  seek  in  the 
Church  of  the  Middle  Ages  the  source  of  aU 
our  scholastic  erudition  and  refinement,  and  of 
all  the  humanising  influence  which  music,  in  all 
its  forms,  has  exerted  over  society. 

III.  Carlisle,  in  his  well-known  work  on  the 
Endowed  Schools,  supplies  us  with  some  very 
desirable  facts  touching  the  cathedral  institu- 
tions which  preceded  the  lay  seminaries,  and 


8  Schools,  School-Books, 

over  which  the  bishop  of  the  diocese  presided 
ex  officio.  The  pupils  in  these  institutions  were 
termed  the  scholastics  of  the  diocese;  and  one 
of  the  latest  survivals  of  the  system  was,  per- 
haps, the  old  St.  Paul's,  which  Colet's  endow- 
ment eventually  superseded.  The  preponderant 
element  here  was,  of  course,  clerical;  the  boys 
were,  as  a  rule,  educated  with  a  view  to  ecclesi- 
astical preferment;  and  those  studies  which  lay 
outside  the  requirements  of  the  early  Church 
were  naturally  omitted.  It  was  a  narrow  and 
warpingcourse  of  discipline,  which  lasted,  never- 
theless, from  the  days  of  'Alfred  to  the  age  of 
the  Tudors. 

But  these  cathedral  schools  themselves  had 
grown  out  of  the  antecedent  conventual  estab- 
lishments, of  which  hundreds  must  have  at  one 
time  existed  among  us,  and  consequently  the 
former  represented  o  forward  movement  and 
a  certain  disposition  to  relax  the  severity  and 
exclusiveness  of  purely  religious  education.  As 
we  see  that  subsequently  it  was  the  practice 
to  attach  to  a  college  a  preparatory  school,  as 
at  Magdalen,  Oxford,  so  in  the  mediaeval  time 
almost  every  monastic  house  had  its  special 


and  Schoolmasters.  9 

educational  machinery  for  training  aspirants  to 
the  various  orders.  This  point  does  not  really 
come  within  my  immediate  scope ;  but  I 
thought  it  well  to  shew  briefly  how,  as  the  lay 
schools  evolved  from  the  cathedral  schools,  so 
the  latter  were  an  outcome  from  the  conven- 
tual. There  seems,  however,  to  have  been  one 
marked  difference  between  the  monastic  or  con- 
ventual and  the  cathedral  programmes,  that  in 
the  latter  the  sciences  of  law  and  medicine, 
having  become  independent  professions,  were 
abandoned  in  favour  of  the  academies,  where 
youths  on  quitting  school  were  specially  in- 
ducted into  a  knowledge  of  those  Faculties. 

Prior  to  the  institution  of  colleges  and  schools 
of  a  better  class,  the  nobility  and  gentry  often 
sent  their  children  to  the  monasteries  and  con- 
vents to  be  initiated  in  the  elements  or  first 
principles  of  learning.  The  sort  of  education 
obtained  here  must  have  been  of  the  most 
meagre  character;  the  course  was  restricted  to 
grammar,  philosophy  of  the  cast  then  in  vogue, 
and  divinity;  the  classics  were  treated  with  com- 
parative neglect,  and  a  study  of  the  living  lan- 
guages was  still  more  remote  from  their  design. 


10  Schools,  School-Books, 

Even  so  late  as  the  Tudor  time,  those  who 
could  afford  to  send  their  children  abroad  found 
the  education  better,  and  probably  cheaper ; 
some  distinguished  Englishmen,  driven  from 
their  country  by  political  or  religious  differences, 
brought  up  their  families  whitherever  they  fled 
as  a  matter  of  necessity. 

Sir  Thomas  Bodley,  in  the  account  of  his 
life  written  by  himself  in  1609,  acquaints  us 
with  the  fact  that  when  his  father  was  living 
at  Geneva,  the  great  centre  of  the  Protestant 
refugees,  and  he  was  a  boy  of  twelve,  he  was 
sufficiently  advanced  in  learning,  through  his 
father's  care,  to  attend  the  lectures  delivered 
at  that  University  in  Hebrew,  Greek,  and 
divinity,  in  which  last  his  teachers  were  Calvin 
and  Beza ;  and  besides  these  studies  he  had 
private  tutors  in  the  house  of  the  gentleman 
with  whom  he  boarded,  including  Robertus 
Gonstantinus,  the  lexicographer,  who  read 
Homer  to  him.  On  the  return  of  the  Bodleys 
to  England  upon  the  accession  of  Elizabeth, 
the  member  of  the  family  who  was  destined  to 
immortalise  their  name  was  sent  to  Oxford. 

Bishop    Waynflete    appears    to    have    been 


and  Schoolmasters.  11 

among  the  earliest  men  who  perceived  the 
necessity,  at  all  events,  of  grounding  boys  more 
thoroughly  in  grammar,  and  he  was  the  prime 
mover  in  the  establishment  of  schools  at  Wayn- 
flete,  Brackley,  and  Oxford,  where  the  Acci- 
dence and  Syntax  were  taught  on  an  improved 
plan.  The  last-named  seminary  was  within  the 
precincts  of  Magdalen  College,  and  became  by 
far  the  most  important  and  most  famous  of  the 
three,  in  consequence  of  its  good  fortune  in 
having  among  its  masters  men  like  Anniquil 
and  Stanbridge,  who  took  a  real  interest  in 
their  profession,  and  bred  scholars  capable  of 
diffusing  and  developing  the  love  of  acquir- 
ing knowledge  and  the  art  of  communicat- 
ing it. 

A  Knight  observes,  grammar  was  the  main 
object ;  but  then  the  method  was  a  great  ad- 
vance on  the  old  monastic  plan.  Even  Jesus 
College,  Cambridge,  was  merely  erected  and 
endowed  for  a  master  and  six  fellows,  and 
a  certain  number  of  scholars  to  be  instructed 
in  grammar. 

At  the  time  of  the  Civil  War,  John  Allibone, 
<a  Buckinghamshire  man,  and  author  of  that 


12  Schools,  School-Books, 

rather  well-known  Latin  description  of  the 
University  as  reformed  by  the  Republicans  in 
1648,  was  head-master  of  Magdalen  School. 

In  the  English  Ship  of  Fools,  1509,  which  is 
a  good  deal  more  than  a  translation,  Barclay 
ridicules  the  archaic  system  of  teaching,  and 
Skelton  does  the  same  in  his  poetical  satires. 
It  was  by  the  indefatigable  exposure  of  the 
inefficiency  and  unsoundness  of  the  prevailing 
modes  of  instruction  that  reforms  were  gradu- 
ally conceded  and  accomplished.  In  all  poli- 
tical and  social  movements  the  caricaturist 
plays  his  part. 

It  is  not  surprising  to  find  Ascharn  in  his 
turn,  fifty  years  later  on,  taking  exception  to 
the  school-teaching  and  teachers  which  had 
educated,  and  more  or  less  satisfied,  so  many 
anterior  generations. 

We  naturally  encounter  in  much  of  the 
literary  work  of  the  seventeenth  century  advice 
and  information  in  matters  relating  to  scho- 
lastic and  academical  culture  wholly  unhelpful 
to  an  inquiry  into  the  training  of  the  middle 
class.  In  the  section  of  a  well-known  book, 
entitled  The  Gentleman's  Calling,  8vo,  1660, 


and  Schoolmasters.  13 

dedicated  to  our  immediate  subject,  the  ano- 
nymous author  observes:  "Scarce  any  that 
owns  the  name  of  a  Gentleman,  but  will  commit 
his  Son  to  the  care  of  some  Tutor,  either  at 
home  or  abroad,  who  at  first  instils  those  Rudi- 
ments, properto  their  tenderer  years,  and  as  Age 
matures  their  parts,  so  advances  his  Lectures^ 
till  he  have  led  them  into  those  spacious  fields 
of  learning,  which  will  afford  them  both  Exer- 
cise and  Delight.  This  is  that  Tree  of  Know- 
ledge upon  which  there  is  no  interdict.  .  .  .'• 
The  preceding  extract  points  to  a  sphere  of 
lite  which  was  wont  to  conclude  its  preparatory 
stage  with  the  Grand  Tour  and  an  initiation 
into  the  profligacy  of  all  the  capitals  of  Europe; 
but  we  see  that  it  deals  with  a  case  in  which  a 
tutor  took  a  youth  almost,  as  it  were,  from  his 
nurse's  apron-strings,  and  does  not  merely  indi- 
cate a  finishing  course.  The  volume  from 
which  the  passage  comes  has  a  promising  title, 
and  mi giit  have  been  intensely  interesting  and 
truly  important;  but  it  was  written  by  some 
dry  and  pedantic  scribbler,  and, like  Osborne's 
Advice  to  a  Son,  1656,  and  many  other  trea- 
tises of  a  cognate  character,  is  a  tissue  of  dul- 


14  Schools,  School-Books, 

ness  and  inanity.  It  is  characteristic  of  the 
whole  that  portraits  of  Jeremiah  and  Zedekiah 
are  selected  as  appropriate  graphic  embellish- 
in  °nts. 

From  a  woodcut  on  the  back  of  the  title- 
page  of  a  Grammatica  Initial-is,  or  Elementary 
Grammar,  1509,  we  form  a  conclusion  as  to 
the  ancient  Continental  method  of  instruction. 
This  engraving  portrays  the  interior  of  a  school, 
apparently  situated  in  a  crypt ;  the  master  is 
seated  at  his  desk  with  a  book  open  before 
him,  and  above  it  a  double  inkstand  and  a  pen, 
both  of  primitive  fabric.  The  teacher  is  evi- 
dently reading  aloud  to  his  four  scholars,  who 
sit  in  front  of  him,  a  passage  from  the  volume, 
and  they  repeat  after  him,  parson-and-clerk- 
wise.  They  learn  by  rote.  They  have  no  books 
before  them.  They  represent  a  stage  in  the 
teaching  process  before  the  science  of  reading 
from  print  of  MS.  had  been  acquired  by  the 
scholar,  and  copies  of  school-books  were  multi- 
plied by  the  press.  There  was  no  preparation 
of  work.  The  quarter  wage  included  no  charge 
for  books  supplied.  The  teaching  was  purely 
oral.  So  it  was  probably  throughout.  It  was 


and  Schoolmasters.  15 

thus  that  Stanbridge,  Whittinton,  Lily,  and  their 
followers  conducted  their  schools,  long  after 
the  cradle  at  Magdalen  had  been  reinforced  by 
other  seminaries  all  over  the  country. 

There  is  no  written  record  of  this  fashion  of 
communicating  information  from  the  master  to 
the  pupil,  so  diametrically  opposed  to  modern 
ideas,  but  conformable  to  an  era  of  general 
illiteracy  ;  it  is  a  sister-art,  which  lends  us  a 
helping  hand  in  this  case  by  admitting  us  to 
what  may  be  viewed  as  an  interior  coeval 
with  Erasmus  and  More. 

The  modern  school  holidays  appear  to  have 
been  formerly  unknown.  In  the  rules  for  the 
management  of  St.  Paul's  and  Merchant  Tay- 
lors', for  instance,  where  a  vacation  is  called  a 
remedy,  no  such  indulgence  was  permitted  save 
in  cases  of  illness  ;  and  it  is  curious  that  in 
the  account  which  Fitzstephen  gives  of  the 
three  seminaries  already  established  in  London 
in  the  reign  of  Henry  II.  the  boys  are  repre- 
sented as  spending  the  holy  days  (rather  than 
holidays)  in  logical  or  rhetorical  exercises  and 
disputations. 

In  all  the  public  schools,  indeed,  holidays 


16  Schools,  School-Books, 

were  at  first  intimately  associated  with  the  re- 
currence of  saints'  anniversaries  and  with  fes- 
tivals of  the  Church,  and  were  restricted  to 
them.  The  modern  vacation  was  not  under- 
stood ;  and  the  first  step  toward  it,  and  the 
earliest  symptom  of  a  revolt  against  the  absence 
of  any  such  intervals  for  diversion  from  studies 
and  attendance  at  special  services,  was  an 
appeal  made  in  1644  to  the  Court  of  the  Com- 
pany by  the  scholars  of  Merchant  Taylors  "  for 
play-days  instead  of  holy-days." 

The  object  of  this  petition  was  to  procure  a 
truce  with  work  and  an  opportunity  for  exercise 
and  sport,  in  lieu  of  a  system  under  which  the 
boys,  from  their  point  of  view,  merely  substi- 
tuted one  kind  of  task  for  another;  but  the 
time  had  not  yet  arrived  for  reform  in  this 
^matter;  our  elders  clang  tenaciously  to  the 
stern  and  monotonous  routine  which  they  found 
established,  and  in  which  they  had  been  bred  ; 
and  the  feeling  in  favour  of  relaxing  the  tension 
by  regular  intervals  of  complete  repose  is  an 
incidence  of  modern  thought,  which  betrays 
a  tendency  at  the  present  moment  to  gravitate 
too  far  to  the  opposite  extreme. 


and  Schoolmasters.  17 

A  quite  recent  report  of  one  of  the  great 
schools  in  the  United  States— the  West  Point 
School— manifests  a  survival  of  the  old-fash- 
ioned ideas  upon  this  subject,  carried  out  by  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers  to  the  American  Plantations  ; 
and  whereas  in  the  mother  country  the  original 
release  from  work  in  order  to  attend  religious 
services  has  resolved  itself  into  the  latter-day 
vacation  or  holiday,  the  modern  educational 
system  beyond  the  Atlantic  seems  to  withdraw 
the  boys  from  the  church,  not  in  favour  of  the 
playground  or  the  country,  but  as  a  means  of 
lengthening  the  hours  of  study.  • 

IV.  —  Ingulphus,  who  lived  in  the  reign  of 
Edward  the  Confessor  (A.  D.  1041-66),  furnishes 
us  with  the  earliest  actual  testimony  of  a  school- 
boy's experiences.  "  I  was  born,  "  he  tells  us, 
"  in  the  beautiful  city  of  London  ;  educated  in 
my  tender  years  at  Westminster:  from  whence 
I  was  afterwards  sent  to  the  Study  of  Oxford, 
where  I  made  greater  progress  in  the  Aristo- 
telian philosophy  than  many  of  my  contempo- 
raries, and  became  very  well  acquainted  with 
the  Rhetoric  of  Cicero."  It  is  very  interesting  to 

B 


18  Schools,  School-Books, 

learn  further  that,  when  he  was  at  school  at 
Westminster,  and  used  to  visit  his  father  at  the 
Court  of  Edward,  he  was  often  examined,  both 
on  the  Latin  language  and  on  logic,  by  the 
Queen  herself. 

Insights  of  this  kind  at  so  early  a  period  are 
naturally  rare,  and  indeed  we  have  to  cross 
over  to  the  Tudor  time  and  the  infancy  of  Eton 
before  we  meet  with  another  such  personal 
trait  on  English  ground. 

Thomas  Tusser,  author  of  the  Points  of  Good 
Husbandry,  admits  us  in  his  metrical  autobio- 
graphy to  an  acquaintance  with  the  severity  of 
treatment  which  awaited  pupils  in  his  time  at 
public  schools,  and  which,  in  fact,  lingered,  as 
part  of  the  gross  and  ignorant  system,  down  to 
within  the  last  generation.  We  have  all  heard 
of  the  renowned  Dr.  Busby  ;  but  that  celebrated 
character  was  merely  a  type  which  has  happe- 
ned from  special  circumstances  to  be  selected 
for  commemoration.  Tusser,  describing  his 
course  of  training,  says  : — 


'  From  Paul's  I  went,  to  Eton  sent, 
To  learn  straightways  the  Latin  phrase  ; 


and  Schoolmasters.  19 

Where  fifty-three  stripes  given  to  me 

At  once  I  had. 

For  fault  but  small,  or  none  at  all, 
It  came  to  pass  that  beat  I  was  : 
See,  Udall,  see  the  mercy  of  thee 

To  me,  poor  lad  !  " 

But  this  kind  of  experience  was  too  common  ; 
and  it  had  its  advocates  even  outside  the  pro- 
fessional pale  :  for  Lord  Burleigh,  as  we  learn 
from  Ascham,  was  on  the  side  of  the  discip- 
linarians. 

Sir  Richard  Sackville,  Ascham's  particular 
friend,  on  the  contrary,  bitterly  deplored  the 
hindrance  and  injury  which  he  had  suffered 
as  a  boy  from  the  harshness  of  his  teacher ; 
and  Udall  himself  carried  his  oppression  so 
far  as  to  offend  his  employers  and  procure  his 
dismissal. 

Nash,  in  Summer's  Last  Will  and  Testament, 
1600,  makes  Summer  say  :—  "  Here,  before  all 
this  company,  I  profess  myself  an  open  enemy 
to  ink  and  paper.  I'll  make  it  good  upon  the 
accidence,  body  of  me !  that  in  speech  is  the 
devil's  paternoster.  Nouns  and  pronouns,  I 
pronounce  you  as  traitors  to  boys'  buttocks  ; 
syntaxis  and  prosodia,  you  are  tormentors  of 


C20  Schools,  School-Books, 

wit,  and  good  for  nothing,  but  to  get  a  school- 
master twopence  a  week  !  " 

In  a  French  sculpture  of  the  end  of  the 
fourteenth  century  we  have  probably  as  early  a 
glimpse  as  we  are  likely  to  get  anywhere  graphi- 
cally of  a  scene  in  a  school,  where  a  mistress 
is  administering  castigation  to  one  of  her  pupils 
laid  across  her  knees,  the  others  looking  on. 
But  it  soon  became  a  favourite  subject  for  the 
illustrator  and  caricaturist. 

The  strictness  of  scholastic  discipline  existed 
in  an  aggravated  form,  no  doubt,  in  eaily  days, 
and  formed  part  of  a  more  barbarous  system  of 
retribution  for  wrong  done  or  suffered.  The 
principle  of  wholesale  and  indiscriminate  flagel- 
lation for  offences  against  the  laws  of  the  school 
or  for  neglect  of  studies  marched  hand  in  hand 
with  the  vindictive  legislation  of  bygone  days  ; 
and  doubtless,  from  the  first,  the  rod  often 
supplied  a  vent  for  the  temper  or  caprice  of  the 
pedagogue. 

At   Merchant   Taylors'  in    my  time  the  cane 
was  freely  used,  and  the  forms  of  chastisement  • 
were  the   cut  on  the  hand  and  the  bender,  for 
which  the  culprit  had  to  stoop. 


and  Schoolmasters.  21 

The  regime  of  the  once  redoutable  Dr. 
Busby  at  Westminster  was  a  kind  of  survival 
of  the  Draconic  rule  of  Udall  at  Eton  when  poor 
Tusser  was  there;  and  it  is  exceedingly  probable 
that  in  the  time  of  Charles  II.  notions  of  what 
was  salutary  for  youth  in  the  shape  of  unguentum 
baculinum,  or  stick-ointment,  had  undergone 
very  slight  alteration  since  the  previous  cen- 
tury. Busby,  of  whom  there  is  a  strange- 
looking  portrait  in  Nichols'  Anecdotes,  was 
the  most  sublime  of  coxcombical  Dons,  and 
within  his  own  pale  an  autocrat  second  to 
none  of  the  Caesars.  Smaller  luminaries  in  the 
same  sphere  paid  him  homage  in  dedicatory 
epistles. 

Everybody  must  remember  the  traditional 
anecdote  of  the  visit  of  Charles  II.  to  West- 
minster, and  of  the  King,  with  his  hat  under 
his  arm,  walking  complacently  behind  Busby 
through  the  school,  the  latter  covered ;  and  of 
the  head-master,  when  his  Majesty  and  himself 
(Ego  et  rex  metis  over  again)  were  beyond 
observation,  bowing  respectfully  to  Charles, 
trencher-cap  in  hand,  and  explaining  that  if  the 
boys  had  any  idea  that  there  was  a  greater  man 


22  Schools,  School-Books, 

in  England  than  him,  his  authority  would  beat 
an  end. 

But  there  is  a  second  story  of  Busby  and  a 
luckless  Frenchman  who  threw  a  stone  by  acci- 
dent through  one  of  the  windows  while  the 
lessons  were  in  progress  and  the  principal  was 
hearing  a  class.  Busby  sent  for  the  offender, 
thinking  it  was  one  of  the  boys  in  the  play- 
ground; but  when  the  stranger  was  introduced,  it 
was  "Take  him  up, "and  a  flogging  was  inflicted 
before  the  whole  assembly.  The  Frenchman 
went  away  in  a  fury,  and  at  once  sent  a  challenge 
to  Busby  by  a  messenger.  The  Doctor  reads 
the  cartel,  and  cries,  "  Take  him  up,"  and  the 
envoy  shares  the  fate  of  his  employer.  He, 
too,  enraged  at  the  treatment,  returns,  and 
demands  compensation  from  Monsieur;  but 
the  latter  shrugs  his  shoulders,  and  can  only 
say,  "  Ah,  me  !  he  be  the  vipping  man  ;  he  vip 
me,  he  vip  you,  he  vip  all  the  world." 

It  was  of  Busby  that  some  one  said  how 
fortunate  it  was  for  the  Seraphim  and  Cherubim 
that  they  had  no  nether  extremities,  or  when 
he  joined  them,  lie  would  have  "  taken  them 
up,"  as  the  Red  Indian  in  his  happy  hunting- 


and  Schoolmasters.  23 

grounds  still  pursues  his  favourite  occupation 
on  earth. 

Charles  Burney,  one  of  a  famous  and  ac- 
complished family,  kept  school  at  one  time  at 
Greenwich.  He  subsequently  removed  to  Chis- 
\vick.  There  are  still  persons  living  who  recol- 
lect him  and  his  oddities.  He  was  a  great 
martinet— a  miniature  Busby  ;  but  a  singular 
point  about  him  was  his  habit  of  inserting  in 
the  quarterly  accounts  sent  to  the  parents  a 
charge  for  the  birch-rods  bought  in  the  course 
of  the  term,  and  applied  for  the  benefit  of 
his  pupils.  This  was  a  novel  and  ingenious 
method,  a  treatment  of  the  question  from  a 
financier's  point  of  view  ;  and  if  black  draughts 
and  blue  pills  were  recognised  as  legitimate 
items  in  the  school-bill,  why  not  the  materials 
for  external  application  ? 

The  condition  of  the  schoolmaster  himself, 
on  the  other  hand,  and  of  his  allies,  the  tutor 
and  the  usher,  was  as  far  removed  from  our 
present  ideas  as  the  code  which  he  enforced 
and  the  books  which  he  expounded.  The  freer 
diffusion  of  knowledge  and  an  advanced  civili- 
sation have  tended  to  liberate  the  schoolboy 


•24  Schools,  School-Books, 

from  the  barbarous  despotism  of  his  teachers, 
the  majority  of  whom  were  latter-day  survi- 
vals of  a  decadent  type,  and  to  raise  the  latter 
in  the  social  scale.  The  rod  is  broken,  and 
Busbyism  is  extinct.  But  the  successors  of  that 
renowned  personage  enjoy  a  higher  rank  and 
enlarged  opportunities,  and  may  maintain  both 
if  they  keep  pace  with  the  progress  of  thought 
and  opinion. 

The  schoolmaster  has  set  his  house  in  order 
at  the  eleventh  hour,  in  obedience  to  external 
pressure,  coming  from  men  who  have  revolted 
against  the  associations  and  prejudices  of  early 
days,  and  inaugurated  a  new  educational  Hegira; 
and  the  evolutions  of  this  modern  platform  are 
by  no  means  fully  manifest. 

The  propensity  of  the  class  to  adhere  to 
ancient  traditions  in  regard  to  the  application 
of  corporal  punishment  was,  of  course,  to  be 
checked  only  by  the  force  of  public  opinion. 
Had  it  not  been  that  the  latter  was  gradually 
directed  against  the  evil,  the  probability  is  that 
this  wrould  have  ranked  among  those  popular 
antiquities  which  time  has  not  seriously  or  gene- 
rally touched.  But  so  early  as  lf>69  a  repre- 


and  Schoolmasters.  '25 

sentation  on  the  subject  was  actually  laid  before 
Parliament  in  a  document  called  "  The  Chil- 
dren's Petition  :  Or,  A  modest  remonstrance  of 
that  intolerable  grievance  our  youth  lie  under  in 
the  accustomed  severities  of  the  school-disci- 
pline of  this  nation."  This  protest  was  printed, 
and  facing  the  title-page  there  meets  the  eye  a 
notice  to  this  effect :  "  It  is  humbly  desired  this 
book  maybe  delivered  from  one  hand  to  another, 
and  that  gentleman  who  shall  first  propose  the 
motion  to  the  House,  the  book  is  his,  together 
with  the  prayers  of  posterity," — in  which  last 
phrase  a  double  sense  may  or  may  not  lurk. 

It  required  many  attacks  on  such  a  strong- 
hold as  the  united  influence  and  prejudice  of 
the  teaching  profession  to  produce  an  effect, 
and  probably  no  effect  was  produced  at  first ; 
for  in  1698  another  endeavour  was  made  to 
obtain  parliamentary  relief,  and  in  this  instance 
the  address  humbly  sought  "  an  Act  to  remedy 
the  foul  abuse  of  children  at  schools,  especially 
in  the  great  schools  of  this  nation." 

These  preparatory  movements  indicated  the 
direction  in  which  sentiment  and  taste  were 
beginning  to  stir,  not  so  much  at  the  outset, 


26        Schools  and  Schoolmasters. 

perhaps,  from  any  persuasion  that  greater  cle- 
mency was  conducive  to  progress,  but  from  a 
natural  disposition  on  the  part  of  parents  to 
revolt  against  the  senseless  ill-usage  of  their 
boys  by  capricious  martinets. 


II. 


The  Foundations— -Vocabularies,  Glossaries,  and  Noniinalia 
—Their  manifold  utility— Colloquy  of  Archbishop  Alfric 
(tenth  century) -Anglo-Gallic  treatise  of  Alexander 
Ni-ckam  on  utensils  (twelfth  century)  —  Works  of 
Johannes  de  Garlandia — His  Dictionary  (thirteenth  cen- 
tury (and  its  pleasant  treatment— The  Pictorial  Vocabu- 
lary—Anglo-Gallic Dictionary  of  Walter  de  Biblesworth 
(late  thirteenth  century). 

I.  THE  origin  and  history  of  a  class  of  docu- 
ments which  may  be  viewed  as  the  basis  and 
starting-point  of  our  educational  literature  have 
first  to  be  considered.  I  refer  to  the  vocabu- 
laries, glossaries,  and  nominalia,  which  afford 
examples  of  the  method  of  instruction  pursued 
tn  this  country  from  the  Middle  Ages  to  the 
invention  of  pinting. 

Such  of  these  manuals  as  we  fortunately  still 
possess  represent  the  surviving  residue  of  a 
much  larger  number;  and  from  the  perishable 


28  Schools,  School-Books, 

material  on  which  they  were  written  and  their 
constant  employment  in  tuition,  it  becomes  a 
source  of  agreeable  surprise  that  so  many 
specimens  remain  to  throw  light  on  the  mode 
in  which  elementary  learning  was  acquired  in 
England  in  the  infancy  of  a  taste  for  letters  and 
knowledge. 

In  the  small  volumes  on  Cookery  and  Garden- 
ing by  the  present  writer,  he  has,  as  a  matter 
of  course,  called  into  requisition  these  early 
philological  relics  to  illustrate  both  those  sub- 
jects ;  and  this  fact  testifies  to  the  multiplicity 
of  purposes  for  which  such  relics  can  be  ren- 
dered serviceable.  There  is  hardly,  indeed,  any 
aspect  or  line  of  mediaeval  life  which  these 
productions  do  not  assist  very  powerfully  in 
making  more  luminous  and  familiar.  But  their 
original  design  and  destination  were  obviously 
educational.  They  were  rude  and  imperfect 
vehicles,  contrived  by  men  of  narrow  culture 
and  limited  experience  for  the  instruction  of  the 
young;  and  they  wrere  advisedly  thrown,  as  far 
as  possible,  into  an  interlocutory  form  —  the 
form  most  apt  to  impress  circumstances  and 
names  on  the  memories  of  pupils.  Some  of 


and  Schoolmasters.  29 

these,  which  I  shall  presently  describe  a  little 
more  at  large,  were  constructed  on  the  inter- 
linear principle,  not,  as  among  ourselves,  for  the 
edification  of  the  learner,  but,  as  Mr.  Wright 
points  out,  for  the  preceptor's  guidance  in  days 
when  the  latter  was  often  a  person  of  very 
mediocre  attainments,  and  was  incapable  of 
dispensing  with  occasional  assistance  to  his 
recollection.  In  other  words,  the  majority  of 
schoolmasters  and  ushers  were  merely  the  me- 
chanical medium  for  conveying  to  the  boys  the 
lessons  which  they  found  set  down  in  treatises 
prepared  by  persons  of  superior  skill  and 
erudition. 

These  primitive  schoolbooks  are,  as  a  rule, 
easily  susceptible  of  classification  under  the 
heads  of  Vocabularies,  Dictionaries,  Colloquies, 
and  Narrative  or  descriptive  texts,  of  which 
the  two  latter  divisions  are  usually  interlinear, 
either  in  part  or  throughout.  Some  of  these 
terms,  again,  were  formerly  understood  in 
acceptations  different  from  our  own ;  for  a 
Vocabulary  was  what  we  should  rather  call  a 
Dictionary,  and  a  Dictionary  was  what  we  should 
rattier  call  a  Phrase-Book. 


30  Schools,    School-Books, 

II.  The  most  ancient  item  in  the  collection 
before  me  belongs  to  that  century  of  which 
King  Alfred  just  lived  to  witness  the  opening, 
the  Colloquy  of  Archbishop  Alfric,  in  Anglo- 
Saxon  and  Latin,  and  known  only  from  an 
enlarged  copy  or  transcript  made  by  the  writer's 
disciple  and  namesake.  The  original  is  sup- 
posed to  have  been  compiled  while  Alfric  was 
a  monk  at  Winchester.  He  succeeded  to  the 
archbishopric  in  995,  and  his  pupil  and  editor 
died  about  the  middle  of  the  following  century. 
The  professed  object  of  the  undertaking  was 
the  acquisition  of  the  Latin  language  by  the 
Anglo-Saxon  youth  in  the  intervals  of  leisure 
from  other  pursuits  or  duties;  and  the  process 
of  instruction  is  conducted  on  the  plan  of  a 
dialogue  in  Latin  between  a  master  and  boys, 
with  an  interlinear  Sayon  gloss.  It  is  significant 
of  the  harsh  discipline  which  prevailed  in  those 
days  that  one  of  the  foremost  points  or  inquiry 
is  in  relation  to  flogging.  The  teacher  asks  if 
the  boys  choose  to  be  flogged  at  their  lessons, 
and  the  answer  is  that  they  would  rather  be 
flogged  and  taught  than  be  ignorant,  but  that 
they  rely  on  his  clemency  and  unwillingness  to 


und  Schoolmasters.  31 

punish  them,  unless  he  is  obliged.  The  entire 
work  deals  with  the  matters  which  were  most 
familiar  to  the  student  and  came  nearest  home 
to  their  everyday  life  and  sympathies  ;  and  this 
feature  constitutes  for  us  its  special  value  and 
beauty.  The  Latin  itself  is  indifferent  enough, 
and  bespeaks  the  acquisition  of  the  tongue  by 
Alfric  and  his  follower  from  the  earlier  monkish 
authors,  rather  than  from  classical  models. 
Many  curious  points  might  be  elicited  from 
the  present  composition  and  others  of  an 
allied  character  printed  with  it, — I  mean  such 
passages  as  those  where  the  shepherd  speaks 
of  the  danger  from  wolves,  and  the  herdsman 
of  the  depredations  of  cattle-lifters.  There  wras 
probably  no  occupation  of  the  period  which  is 
not  brought  before  us,  and  its  particular  speci- 
alities bilingually  set  out. 

The  VOCABULARY,  of  approximately  the  same 
date,  is  in  reality  a  Latin  and  Anglo-Saxon  word- 
book. Like  the  Colloquy,  it  received  subsequent 
additions — perhaps  by  the  same  hand;  but  they 
are  in  the  form  of  a  separate  Appendix.  Each 
section  has  its  independent  alphabet,  and  the 
articles  which  fall  under  it  do  not  observe  any 


32  Schools,  School-Books, 

apparent  order.  The  same  is  to  be  said  of  all 
the  works  of  this  class  belonging  to  the 
mediaeval  era. 

The  Anglo-Gallic  treatise  of  Alexander 
Neckam  De  Utensilibus  (twelfth  century)  is 
differently  constructed  from  the  Alfric  Vocabu- 
lary, not  as  regards  the  text  itself,  which  is 
also  in  Latin,  but  in  having  an  interlinear  gloss 
in  Old  French,  and  in  following  a  descriptive 
form.  It  takes  the  various  parts  of  a  dwelling 
seriatim,  the  several  occupations  and  callings 
of  men,  the  mode  of  laying  out  a  garden,  and 
of  building  a  castle. 

Perhaps  the  book  by  Neckam  and  the 
Dictionary  of  Johannes  de  Garlandia  constitute 
together  the  most  comprehensive  and  remark- 
able body  of  information  in  our  literature  re- 
specting the  life  and  habits  of  the  Anglo-Saxons 
and  Anglo-Normans. 

Johannes  de  Garlandia,  whose  work  is  com- 
mon in  MS.  and  who  is  also  known  as  the 
author  of  other  productions  of  a  philological 
cast,  commences  his  Dictionary  by  defining 
what  a  dictionary  is.  "  Dictionarius,3'  says 
he,  "  dicitur  libellus  iste  a  dictionibus  magis 


and  Schoolmasters.  33 

necessariis,  quas  tenetur  quilibet  scolaris,  non 
tantam  in  scrinio  de  linguis  facto,  sed  in  cordis 
arrnariolo  firmiter  retinere,  ut  ad  faciliorem 
oracionis  constructionem  perveniat.  Primo 
igitur  sciat  vulgaria  nominare.  Placet  igitur 
a  membris  humani  corporis  incoare.  .  .  ." 

Tliis  phrase  or  word  book,  which  was  pro- 
bably composed  about  1220,  enters  into  the  most 
minute  particulars  under  all  the  eads  which 
it  comprises,  and  is  unquestionably  of  the 
highest  value  and  interest  as  taking  us  back  so 
far  into  the  life  of  the  past,  and  making  us  in  a 
manner  the  contemporary  of  an  Englishman  who 
flourished  six  or  seven  centuries  ago,  and  domi- 
ciled himself  in  France,  chiefly  at  Paris,  where 
he  gives  us  an  account  of  his  house  and  gar- 
den, with  all  their  appointments  and  incidence. 

There  is  a  very  curious  passage  in  one  of  the 
glosses,  where  Johannes  explains  the  derivation 
of  Pes,  which  he  traces  from  the  Greek  pos  [sic] 
adding  that  thence  the  dwellers  of  the  other 
world  or  hemisphere,  if  it  be  true  that  there  are 
any,  are  termed  Antipodes.  As  this  was  written 
nearly  300  years  before  Golombus,  it  might 
have  supplied  a  note  and  a  point  to  Mr. 

c 


,34  Schools,   School-Books, 

Beamish  in  his  volume  on  the  Discovery  of 
America  by  the  Northmen  in  the  Tenth  Century, 
1841. 

The  old  dictionary-maker  brings  us  so  near 
to  him  by  his  pleasant  colloquial  method  and 
familiar  way  of  putting  everything,  and  expects 
us  to  become  acquainted  into  the  bargain  with 
his  friends  and  neighbours,  who  resided  at 
Paris  under  Philip  Augustuses  if  one  might  go 
there  and  find  some  of  them  still  living.  In 
other  words,  there  was  belonging  to  this  man  a 
natural  simplicity  of  style  and  a  communicati- 
veness which  together  have  rendered  his  treatise 
a  work  of  art  and  a  cyclopaedia  of  information. 
He  even  leaves  his  house  to  go  into  the  market 
with  you  and  shew  what  his  neighbour  William 
has  on  sale  there  !  How  unspeakably  more 
luminous  and  understandable  the  gone  ages 
might  have  been  if  we  had  had  more  such  ! 

111.  Passing  from  him,  his  pleasant  book,  and 
its  pleasant  associations  with  cordial  regret,  I 
just  notice  the  other  and  latter-day  word-books, 
wrhich  are  really,  in  the  main,  of  the  same  type 
as  those  of  which  a  description  has  gone  before. 


and  Schoolmasters.  35 

One  only  differs  markedly  from  the  rest  in 
possessing  graphic  embellishments  of  a  rude 
and  quaint  character  ;  among  the  rest  the  por- 
trait of  a  woe-begone  gallant,  and  by  his  side 
an  arrow-pierced  heart.  Some  of  the  repre- 
sentations^are,  of  course,  happier  than  others  ; 
assuredly  those  of  animals  are  pre-Landseerian. 
They  are  many  degrees  below  the  stamp  of 
such  artistic  essays  as  one  finds  in  the  books 
of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries, 
as  a  rule,  both  in  England  and  abroad.  Cri- 
ticism lays  down  its  arms. 

But  I  must  dwell  rather  longer  on  one  of  the 
tracts  in  this  series— the  Anglo-Gallic  Dictionary 
or  Phraseologia  of  Walter  de  Biblesworth.  It 
is  the  most  ancient  monument  of  its  particular 
kind  of  which  I  am  aware,  and  is  ascribed  to 
the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century,  in  other 
words,  to  the  period  embraced  by  the  later  years 
of  the  reign  of  Edward  I.  The  orthography, 
which  naturally  strikes  a  modern  French  stu- 
dent as  strange  and  uncouth,  may  be  accepted 
as  a  key  to  the  ancient  pronunciation  of  the 
language,  at  all  events  in  England,  if  not  even 
among  the  French  themselves  ;  but  the  Ian- 


36  Schools,  School-Books, 

guage,  apart  from  the  spelling,  is  remarkable 
for  its  plentiful  use  of  expressions  which  have 
fallen  into  desuetude,  and  some  of  which,  as 
10  for  ye,  bespeak  a  Pyrenaaan  origin. 

This  production  is  intituled  "  Le  treytyz 
ke  moun  sire  Gauter  de  Bibelesworthe  fist  a 
ma  dame  Dyonisie  de  Mounchensy,  pur  aprise 
de  langwage,  c,o  est  a  saver,  du  primer  temps 
ke  horn  me  nestra,  ouweke  trestut  le  langwage 
pur  saver  nurture  en  sa  juvente,  &c."  The 
text  is  in  short  rhyming  couplets,  and  takes 
the  child  from  its  birth  through  all  the  duties, 
occupations,  and  incidents  of  life.  To  select  a 
passage  which  will  give  a  fair  idea  of  the  whole 
is  not  altogether  easy ;  but  here  is  an  extract 
which  is  capable  of  puzzling  an  average  French 
scholar  of  our  day  : — 

"  Homme  et  femme  lint  la  pec!, 
De  morte  beste  quyr  jo  apel. 
Le  clerk  soune  le  dreyne  apel, 
Le  prestre  fat  a  Roume  apel. 
Ore  avet  co  ke  pent  a  cors, 
Dedens  ausy  et  deors. 

Vestet  vos  dras,  me  chers  en  fauns, 
Chaucez  vos  bras,  soulers,  e  gauns  ; 
Mettet  le  chaperoun,  coverz  le  chef, 
Tachet  vos  botouns,  e  pus  derechef 
De  une  coreye  vus  ceynet." 


and  Schoolmasters.  37 

This  didactic  treatise  is  additionally  interest- 
ing to  the  English  student  from  its  relationship, 
in  the  way  of  likely  literary  ancestry,  to  the 
subsequent  compilations  of  a  cognate  sort  by 
Lydgate  and  others.  The  diction  is  obscure 
enough,  and  has  the  air  of  having  been  the 
work  of  a  man  of  imperfect  culture,  from  the 
presence  of  such  forms  as  dreyne  for  derreniere 
or  derniere  and  the  abundance  of  false  syntax, 
which  ought  not  to  have  been  so  conspicuous, 
even  at  this  remote  date,  in  a  composition  pro- 
fessedly educational.  Yet,  after  all  deductioHs, 
the  work  is  of  singular  curiosity  and  fascination, 
not  only  for  its  owrn  sake,  but  as  the  best  phi- 
lological standard  which  we  seem  to  have  to 
put  side  by  side  with  its  successors  in  the 
same  important  direction. 


111. 


Earliest  printed  works  of  instruction— Publications  of  Bishop 
Perrotus— His  Grammatical  Rules  —  Johannes  Sulpicius 
and  his  Opus  G ram  mat iciint  — Some  account  of  the 
book— Importance  and  influence  of  these  foreign 
Manuals  in  England— The  Carmen  Juvcmile  or  Stans 
Puf'r  </(/  Men.sam — Alexander  Callus  or  De  Villa  Dei 
and  his  Doctrinale— The  Doctrinal^  one  of  the  earliest 
productions  of  the  Dutch  press—  yKIius  Donatus  —  His 
immt-nse  popularity  and  weight  both  at  home  and 
abroad-- Selections  or  abridgments  of  his  Grammar 
used  in  English  schools. 

I.  THE  most  ancient  published  books  of  in- 
struction for  Englishmen  in  scholastic  and  aca- 
demical culture  emanated  from  a  foreign  country 
and  press.  When  the  Vocabularies,  Grammars, 
and  other  Manuals  ceased  to  circulate  in  a 
manuscript  form,  or  to  be  written,  and  multi- 
plied by  teachers  for  the  use  of  their  own  pupils, 
the  early  Parisian  printers  supplied  the  market 
with  the  works,  which  it  had  been  theretofore 


Schools  and  Schoolmasters.        39 

possible  to  procure  only  to  a  very  limited 
extent,  in  transcripts  executed  by  the  authors 
themselves  or  by  professional  copyists. 

The  educational  writings  of  some  of  the  men, 
whose  influence  for  good  in  this  direction  had 
of  course  been  greatly  circumscribed  by  the 
ignorance  of  typography,  found  their  way  into 
print.  But  one  of  the  foremost  persons  who 
addressed  himself  to  the  task  of  diffusing  a 
knowledge  of  elementary  learning  and  of 
teaching  English  by  Latin  was  NIGHOLAUS 
PEROTTUS,  BISHOP  OF  SIPONTUM,  whose  Gram- 
matical Rules  first  appeared,  so  far  as  I  know, 
in  148H.* 

The  examples  of  fifteenth-century  English, 
which  make  in  our  eyes  its  chief  value,  were 
of  course  introduced  as  casual  illustrations. 

The  lexicographical  and  grammatical  works 
of  this  noted  prelate  undoubtedly  exercised  a 

*  There  is  some  sort  of  evidence  that  the  Grammar  ol 
Perottus  was  in  dtmand  here  in  England  as  a  work  of 
reference  and  instruction  ;  for  I  find  it  in  the  interesting 
account-book  of  John  Dome  of  Oxford  for  1520.  It  is 
bracketed  with  the  Vulgaria  of  Whittinton  and  the  Vocabula 
and  Accidence  of  Stanbridge  as  having  fetched,  the  four 
together,  3s.  It  is  described  as  being  in  leather  binding,  in 
quarto. 


40  Schools,  School-Books, 

very. powerful  and  beneficial  influence  at,  and 
long  after,  the  period  of  their  composition ;  and 
I  am  disposed  to  think  that  this  was  particu- 
larly the  case  ^r  \t\i\\\sRudimentaGramm  at  ices, 
1476,  and  his  Cornucopia  Linguae.  Latino?.,  1490. 
The  former  was  not  only  imported  into  this 
country  for  sale,  but  was  reprinted  here  in  1512, 
and  the  Cornucopia  forms  part  of  the  ground- 
work of  our  own  Ortus  Vocabulorum,  1500. 

II.  Next  in  succession  to  Bishop  Perrot, 
whose  publications,  however,  cannot  be  said  to 
belong  to  the  present  category  in  more  than 
an  incidental  degree,  was  JOHANNES  SULPIGIUS 
YERULANUS,  who  is  perhaps  to  be  viewed  as 
the  leader  of  the  movement  for  spreading,  not 
only  in  France,  but  in  England,  a  fuller  and 
more  scholarly  acquaintance  with  the  laws  of 
grammar.  Nearly  the  first  book  which  pro- 
ceeded from  the  press  of  Richard  Pynson  was 
his  Opm  Grammaticum,  4to,  1494. 

Almost  every  successive  impression  seems  to 
differ  in  the  contents  or  their  distribution,  owing, 
as  I  apprehend,  to  the  circumstance  that  the 
volume  was  compounded  of  separate  tracts,  of 


and  Schoolmasters.  41 

which  some  were  occasionnally  added  or 
omitted  at  pleasure,  or  variously  placed. 

The  edition  of  1505  comprises  the  under- 
mentioned pieces  : — 

Sulpilii  Verulani  examen  de  8  partibus  oriatonis. 

De  declinatione  nominum. 

De  preteritis  &  supiriis. 

Carmen  iuuenile  de  moribus  mensce. 

Vocabulorum  inlerpretatio. 

lod.  Badii  Ascensii  De  regimine  dictionurn 

Sulp.  Verul.  De  regimine  &  constructione. 

De  componendis  ordinandisq.  epistolis. 

De  carminibus. 

The  title-leaf  presents  the  woodcut,  often  em- 
ployed by  Pynson  in  his  later  performances,  of 
a  person,  probably  a  schoolmaster,  seated  at  a 
plutus  or  reading-desk,  holding  a  paper  in  one 
hand,  and  reading  from  a  book  which  lies 
open  before  him. 

Whatever  may  now  be  thought  of  them,  the 
philological  labours  of  Sulpicius,  which  were 
subsequently  edited  and' glossed  by  Badius 
Ascensius,  were  long  extremely  popular  a»d 
successful,  and  a  very  large  number  of  copies 
must  have  been  in  English  hands  during  the 
reigns  of  Henry  the  Seventh  and  his  son.  Qf 
these,  as  I  have  said,  some  proceeded  from 


42  Schools,  School-Books, 

the  London  press,  while  others  were  imported 
from  Paris, 

The  fasciculi  in  one  of  1511  are  as  fol- 
low : — 

Sulpitii  Examen  de  octo  partibus  oriatonis. 

Carmen  luuenile. 

De  declinatione  nominum  orthoclitorum 

heteroclitorum. 

De  nominibus  heteroclitis. 
De  geneiibus  nominum. 
De  verbis  defectiuis. 
De  pr?eteritis  verborum. 

De  supinis     

De  regimine  et  constructione  dictionum  Libellus. 

De  componendis  ornandisq  ;  epistolis. 

De  Cairminibus. 

De  quantitate  syllabarum. 

De  A,  E,  &c.  in  primis  syllabis. 

mediis 

De  ultimis  syllabis. 

De  Carminibus  decoro  [sic]  &c. 

Donati  de  figuris  opusculum. 

De  latinarum  dictionum  recta  scriptura. 

De  grecarum  dictionum  ortographia. 

De  ratione  diphtongangi. 

Ascensii  de  orthographia  carmina. 

Yocabulorum  interpretatio. 

The  Carmen  Juvenile,  inserted  here  and  in 
the  antecedent  issues,  is  the  poem  better  known 
as  Stans  Puer  ad  Mensam,  and  in  its  English 
dress  by  Lydgate.  Mr.  Blades  tells  us  that  the 


and  Schoolmasters.  43 

editio  princeps  of  the  Latin  poem  appeared  in 
1483,  and  that  Caxton  printed  Lydgate's  Eng- 
lish one  at  an  anterior  date.  Lyd gate,  however, 
had  been  dead  many  years  when  his  production 
saw  the  light  in  type,  and  as  he  could  scarcely 
have  translated  the  piece  from  Sulpicius,  the 
probability  seems  to  be  that  both  resorted  to 
a  pre-existent  original,  which  the  Englishman 
rendered  into  his  own  tongue,  and  the  foreign 
grammarian  adopted  or  modernised.  A  com- 
parison of  the  English  text  with  that  given  in 
the  work  of  Sulpicius  shews  considerable  varia- 
tions ;  the  latter  version  is  here  and  there  more 
outspoken  and  blunt  in  its  language  than  the 
paraphrase  of  the  good  Monk  of  Bury  St. 
Edmunds.  It  is  accompanied  by  a  running 
gloss  by  the  learned  Ascensius  ;  and  although 
the  book, was  ostensibly  designed  for  the  use 
of  students,  the  contractions  are  unusually 
troublesome,  and  many  of  the  proper  names  are 
exhibited  in  an  ortography  at  any  rate  rather 
peculiar.  The  god  whose  special  province  was 
the  management  of  the  solar  orb  is  introduced 
as  formosus  appolo.  His  substitution  of  Ver- 
yilius  as  the  name  of  the  Latin  poet  is  so  far 


44  Schools,    School-Books, 

not  remarkable,  inasmuch  as  Polydore  Vergil  of 
Urbino  appears  always  to  have  spelled  his  name 
so,  and  in  the  edition  of  Virgil  by  Aldus,  1501, 
the  author  is  called  Vergilius.  I  am  afraid  that 
if  I  were  to  furnish  a  specimen  of  the  contrac- 
tions, a  modern  typographer  would  be  puzzled 
to  reproduce  it  with  the  desirable  exactitude. 

III.  When  one  'turns  over  the  leaves  of  a 
volume  of  this  kind,  and  sees  the  way  in  which 
the  avenue  to  learning  and  knowledge  was  ham- 
pered by  pedantic  and  ignorant  instructors,  it 
seems  marvellous,  not  that  the  spread  of  educa- 
tion was  so  slow  and  partial,  but  that  so  many 
scholars  should  have  emerged  from  such  a 
process. 

A  more  obscure  and  repellent  series  of  gram- 
matical dissertations  can  hardly  be  imagined; 
yet  Sulpicius  holds  a  high  rank  among  the  pro- 
moters of  modern  education,  as  the  precursor  of 
all  those,  such  as  Robert  Whittinton.  John  Stan- 
bridge,  and  William  Lily,  who,  after  the  revival 
of  learning  and  the  institution  of  the  printing- 
press,  prepared  Ihe  way  for  improved  methods 
and  more  enlightened  preceptors.  His  followers 


and  Schoolmasters.  45 

naturally  went  beyond  him  ;  but  Sulpicius  was 
doubtless  as  much  in  advance  of  his  forerun- 
ners as  Richard  Morris  is  in  advance  of  Lindley 
Murray. 

After  the  restoration  of  letters,  Sulpicius 
seems  to  have  been  the  pioneer  in  re-erecting 
grammar  into  a  science,  and  formulating  its 
rules  and  principles  on  a  systematic  basis. 

In  enumerating  the  aids  to  learning  which 
the  English  received  from  the  Continent,  we 
must  not  overlook  Alexander  Gallus,  or  Alexan- 
der de  Villa  Dei,  a  French  Minorite  and  school- 
teacher of  the  thirteenth  century,  who  reduced 
the  system  of  Priscian  to  a  new  metrical  plan, 
doubtless  for  the  use  of  his  own  pupils,  as  well 
as  his  personal  convenience  and  satisfaction. 

The  Doctrinale  of  Alexander,  which  is  in 
leonine  verse,  circulated  more  or  less  in  MS. 
during  his  life,  and  was  one  of  the  earliest 
books  committed  to  the  press,  as  a  fragment 
on  vellum  with  the  types  of  Laurence  Coster 
of  Haarlem  establishes.  It  was  repeatedly  pub- 
lished abroad,  but  does  not  really  seem  to 
have  ever  gained  a  strong  footing  among  our- 
selves, since  three  editions  of  it  are  all  that 


46  Schools,  School-Books, 

I  can  trace  as  having  come  from  London 
presses,  and  of  these  the  first  was  in  1503.  It 
did  not,  in  fact,  command  attention  till  we 
were  on  the  eve  of  a  great  reform  in  our  school- 
books  ;  and  while  in  France,  if  not  elsewhere 
abroad,  it  preserved  its  popularity  during  two 
or  three  centuries,  till  it  was  supplanted  by  the 
Grammar  and  Syntax  of  Despauteritis  about 
1515,  here  in  a  dozen  years  it  had  run  its  course, 
and  scarcely  left  even  the  marks  of  its  influence 
behind. 

IV.  But  the  prototype  of  all  the  grammatical 
writers  and  teachers  of  early  times  in  this  as 
well  as  other  countries  was  ^ELIUS  DONATUS, 
a  Roman  professor  of  the  fourth  century,  who 
probably  acquired  his  experience  from  Priscian 
and  the  other  works  published  under  the  Empire 
upon  his  favourite  science,  and  who  had  the 
honour  to  number  Saint  Jerome  among  his 
disciples. 

Donatus  is  the  author  of  a  System  of  Grammar 
in  three  parts,  and  of  a  series  of  Prefaces  and 
Scholia  to  Terence ;  and  his  reputation  be- 
came so  great  and  was  so  widely  diffused,  that 


and  Schoolmasters.  47 

a  Donatus  or  Donet  was  a  well-understood 
synonym  for  a  Primer,  and  John  of  Basing 
even  christens  his  Greek  Grammar,  compiled 
about  1240,  Donatus  Grwcorum,  Langland, 
in  his  Vision  concerning  Piers  Ploughman, 
written  a  century  later,  say— 

"Thaune  drowe  I  me  amonges  draperes  my  donet 
to  lerne  ;" 

and  the  Testament  of  Love  alludes  to  the  work 
in  similar  terms.  "  In  the  statues  of  Winchester 
College  [written  about  1386],"  says  Wart  on,  "a 
grammar  is  called  Antiquiis  Donatus,  i.e.  the 
Old  Donat,  or  the  name  of  a  system  of  grammar 
at  that  time  in  vogue,  and  long  before.  The 
French  have  a  book  entitled  '  Le  Donnet,  traite 
de  grammaire.  .  .  .  Among  Rawlinson's  MSS. 
at  Oxford  I  have  seen  Donatus  optimus  noviter 
compilatus,  a  manuscript  on  vellum,  given  to 
Saint  Albans  by  John  Stoke,  Abbot  in  1450. 
*n  the  introduction,  or  lytell  Proheme,  to  Dean 
Colet's  Grammatices  Rudimenta,  we  find  men- 
tion made  of  'certayne  introducyons  into  latyn 
spech  called  Donates,  &c.  .  .  .  Cotgrave.  .  . 
quotes  an  old  French  proverb:  'Les  diables 


48  Schools,  School-Books, 

etoient  encores  a  leur  Donat* — The  devils  were 
but  yet  in  their  grammar." 

In  common  with  ^Esop,  the  Dialogus  Crea- 
turarum,  and  other  peculiarly  popular  works, 
Donatus  lent  his  name  to  productions  which 
really  had  no  connection  with  his  own,  and  we 
find  such  titles  as  Donatus  Moralizatus,  Donatus 
Chr  \stianatus,  adopted  by  writers  of  a  diffe- 
rent class  in  order  to  attract  attention  and  gain 
acceptance. 

In  England,  however,  the  works  of  Donatus 
do  not  appear  to  have  obtained  the  same  broad 
footing  wrhich  they  probably  did  in  Italy.  The 
modern  edition  by  Lindemann,  taken  from  a 
manuscript  at  Berlin,  exhibits  the  entire  system 
divided  into  three  sections  or  books.  But  all 
that  we  know  to  have  passed  the  press,  at  all 
events  in  this  country,  are  two  pieces  evidently 
prepared  for  petty  schools  — the  Donatus  Minor 
and  the  Donatus  pro  pueris,  both  published  c 
the  end  of  the  fifteenth  or  beginning  of  t 
sixteenth  century. 

The  former  has  on  the  title-page  a  large  wood- 
cut, representing  a  schoolmaster  in  a. sort  of 
thronal  chair,  with  the  instrument  of  correction 


and  Schoolmasters.  49 

in  his  hand,  and  three  pupils  kneeling  in  front 
of  him.  Both  the  teacher  and  his  scholars  wear 
the  long  hair  of  the  period  and  plain  close  caps. 
It  is  curious  that  the  pupils  should  not  be  un- 
covered, but  the  engraving  could  not,  perhaps, 
be  altered. 

"The  work  begins  with  the  title 'De  Nomine.' 
Almost  every  page  has  a  distinct  running  title 
descriptive  of  the  subject  below  treated  of. 
Herbert  properly  adds :  4  In  this  book  the 
declension  of  some  of  the  pronouns  is  very 
remarkable,  viz  N.  Ego.  G.  mei  vel  mis.  N. 
Tu.  G.  tui  vel  tis.  N.  Quis  vel  qui,  que  vel 
qua,  Quod  vel  quid.  PL  D.  &  Ab.  quis  vel 
quibus.  Also  Nostras  and  Vestras  are  declined 
throughout  without  the  neuter  gender.'  " 


IV. 


Rise  of  native  teachers— Magdalen  College  School,  Oxford 
—John  Annaquil,  its  first  master,  and  his  grammatical 
handbooks— The  Compendium  Grammatices  with  the 
Vulgaria  of  Terence  annexed— The  Parvulorum  Insti- 
tutio— Personal  allusions  in  the  examples  given — JOHN 
STANBRIDGE— Account  of  his  works,  with  extracts  of 
interesting  passages— ROBERT  WHITTINTON— His  sec- 
tional series  of  Grammars. 

I.  THE  influence  of  Donatus  was  both  wide- 
spread and  of  prolonged  duration,  and  we  must 
regard  the  ancient  capital  of  the  civilised  world 
as  the  focus  and  cradle  of  all  modern  gramma- 
tical literature.  Upon  the  great  revival  of  cul- 
ture, many  Englishmen  repaired  to  Rome  to 
undergo  a  formal  training  for  the  scholastic 
profession  under  the  masters  who  arose  there, 
among  whom  were  Sulpicius,  author,  as  we  have 
seen,  of  several  educational  tracts,  which  ob- 
tained considerable  currency  here,  and  Johan- 
nes Balbns,  who  com  piled  the  famous  Catholicon. 


Schools  and  Schoolmasters.        51 

The  LEXICON  and  DICTIONARY  naturally  fol- 
lowed the  Primer ;  and  our  earliest  productions 
of  this  kind  were  formed  out  of  the  Vocabu- 
laries composed  and  printed  abroad— not  in 
Italy,  but  in  Germany,  as  a  rule.  But  while  in 
many  instances  we  are  made  acquainted  with 
the  writers  or  editors  of  the  smaller  treatises, 
the  names  of  those  laborious  men  who  under- 
took the  compilation  of  the  first  type  of  glosso- 
graphical  Manual  are  scarcely  kno\vn. 

But  the  time  soon  arrived  when  a  native 
school  of  tuition  \vas  formed  in  England,  and 
its  original  seat  seems  to  have  been  at  the  Free 
School  immediately  adjacent  to  Magdaleji  Col- 
lege, Oxford. 

We  find  John  Annaquil  mentioned  as  the 
master  of  this  seminary  in  the  time  of  Henry 
the  Seventh,  and  it  is  the  most  ancient  record 
of  it  that  has  been  apparently  recovered.  Anna- 
quil, of  whom  our  knowledge  is  extremely  scanty, 
wrote,  for  the  use  more  immediately  of  his  own 
pupils,  'Compendium  Grarnmatlces^ with  an  Anglo- 
Latin  version  of  the  Vulgaria  of  Terence  an- 
nexed. This  volume  was  printed  at  Oxford  by 
Theodore  Rood  about  1484  ;  and  an  edition  of 


52  Schools,  School-Books, 

the  work  entitled  Pnrvulorum  Ins  t  it  utio,  ascribed 
to  the  same  press,  was  doubtless  prepared  by 
Annaquil,  or  under  his  direction,  for  the  benefit 
of  his  school.  Such  fragments  as  have  been  re- 
covered of  this  book  exhibit  variations  from  the 
later  copies,  into  which  subsequent  editors  pur- 
posely introduced  improvements  and  correc- 
tions. There  are  some  familiar  allusions  here, 
such  as,  had  they  been  more  numerous,  might 
have  rendered  these  ancient  educational  tracts 
more  attractive  and  precious  even  than  they 
are.  I  mean  such  entries  as,  "I  go  to  Oxford  : 
Eo  Ojconhtm  or  Ad  Oxon'wm."  I  shall  go  to  Lon- 
don :  I  bo  Londinum." 

Knight  explains  these  references  in  his  Life 
of  Dean  Colet:  "It  may  not  be  amiss  to  remark 
that  many  of  the  examples  in  the  Latin  Grammar 
pointed  to  the  then  juncture  of  public  affairs; 
viz.,  the  prosecution  of  Empson  and  Dudley  in 
the  beginning  of  Henry  VIII. 's  reign  :  as  Reyum 
est  tueri  leges  ;  Refert  omnium  animadverti  in 
malos.  And  this  humour  was  the  reason  why, 
in  the  following  editions  of  the  Syntax,  there 
were  examples  accommodated  to  the  respec- 
tive years  of  the  impressions;  as,  Andilo  reyem 


and  Schoolmasters.  53 

Doroberniam  proficisci :  Imperator  [Maximilian] 
meruit  sube  rege,  &c.  There  were  likewise  in 
that  edition  of  Erasmus  several  examples  re- 
ferring to  Dean  Colet,  as  Vixit  Romce,  studuit 
Oxonii,  natus  est  Londini,  discessit  Londini,  &c." 

Annaquil  is  supposed  to  have  died  about 
1488,  and  was  succeeded  in  his  work  by  John 
Stanbridge,  who  is  much  better  known  as  a 
grammarian  than  his  predecessor.  Stanbridge 
was  a  native  of  Northamptonshire,  according  to 
Wood,  and  received  his  education  at  Winches- 
ter. In  1481  he  was  admitted  to  New  College, 
Ox  ford,  after  two  years'  probation,  and  remained 
there  five  years,  at  the  end  of  which  he  was 
appointed  first  usher  under  Annaquil  of  the 
Free  School  aforesaid,  and  after  his  principal's 
death  took  his  place.  The  exact  period  of  his 
death  is  not  determined;  but  he  probably  lived 
into  the  reign  of  Henry  the  Eighth. 

II.  The  writings  of  Stanbridge  are  divisible 
into  two  sections — those  which  he  published 
in  his  own  lifetime,  and  those  which  appeared 
after  his  death  in  the  form  either  of  reim- 
pressions  or  selections  by  his  pupil  Whittinton 
and  others.  The  former  category  embraces : 


54  Schools,  School-Books, 

1.  ACCIDENCE;  2.  VOCABULA  ;  3.  VULGARIA 
In  the  latter  I  include  :  1.  ACCIDENTIA  EX  STAN  - 
BRIGIANA  EDITIONS  RECOGNITA  lima  Roberti 
Whittintoni ;  2.  PARVULORUM  INSTITUTIO  EX 
STANBRIGIANA  GOLLECTIONE.  The  first  of  these 
productions,  not  strictly  to  be  regarded  as  pro- 
ceeding from  the  pen  of  Stanbridge,  bears  the 
name  of  Whittinton ;  the  second  I  merely 
apprehend  to  have  been  his.  But  the  line  of 
distinction  between  the  publications  of  Stan- 
bridge  himself  and  posthumous,  or  at  any  rate 
not  personally  superintended  reprints,  is  one 
which  ought  to  be  drawn. 

There  is  an  edition  of  St&nbridge's  Accidence, 
printed  at  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century  by 
Cax  ton's  successor  at  Westminster.  The  varia- 
tions between  it  and  the  collections  which  were 
modelled  upon  it,  probably  by  John  Holt, 
whom  1  shall  again  mention,  are  thus  explained 
and  stated  by  the  author  of  the  Typographical 
Antiquities  : — 

"  This  treats  of  the  eight  parts  of  reason  ;  but 
they  differ  in  several  respects  as  to  the  manner 
of  treating  of  them  ;  this  treating  largely  of  the 
degrees  of  comparison,  which  the  other  (Acci- 
dentia  ex  Stanbrigiana  Collectlone)  does  not 


and  Schoolmasters.  55 

so  much  as  mention.  That  gives  the  moods 
and  tenses  of  the  4.  conjugations  at  large,  both 
active  and  passive,  whereas  this  gives  only  a 
few  short  rules  to  know  them  by.  Again,  this 
shews  the  concords  of  grammar,  which  the 
other  has  not. " 

There  are  at  least  three  issues  of  the  Acci- 
dence from  London  presses,  and  a  fourth  in  an 
abridged  shape  from  an  Antwerp  one,  presum- 
ably for  the  convenience  of  English  residents 
in  the  Low  Countries.  The  tide  had  by  this 
time  begun  to  a  certain  extent  to  flow  in  an 
opposite  direction,  as  it  were,  and  not  only  in- 
troductions to  our  own  language  were  executed 
here  and  reproduced  abroad,  but  Latin  authors 
were  beginning  to  find  competent  native  inter- 
preters, among  whom  John  Annaquil  was  per- 
haps the  foremost. 

Next  to  the  Accidence  of  Stanbridge  I  shall 
consider  briefly  his  Vocabula,  which  was,  on  the 
whole,  the  most  popular  of  his  works,  and  con- 
tinued for  the  greatest  length  of  time  in  vogue, 
as  I  record  editions  of  it  as  late  as  the  period 
of  the  Civil  War  (1647).  I  have  not,  on  the 
other  hand,  met  with  any  anterior  to  1510. 
Annexed  is  a  specimen: — 


56  Schools,  School-Books, 


11 


is       -i 


§ 


§  g  g 


-    -  s    i  1~ 

' 


o  T5 


S  s  s  2  i 

1?*^«  s 

•H 


and  Schoolmasters.  57 

This  extract  is  highly  edifying.  In  the  con- 
cluding line  ponto,  a  ferry-barge,  is  the  modern 
punt,  and  lynter,  a  cock-boat,  is  the  early 
Venetian  lintra,  to  which  I  refer  in  Venice  be- 
fore the  Stones  as  antecedent  to  the  gondola. 

III.  The  remaining  contribution  of  Stan- 
bridge  is  this  class  of  literature  is  his  Vulgaria, 
which  I  take  to  be  the  least  known.  Dibdin 
describes  is  somewhat  at  large,  and  it  may  be 
wrorth  while  to  transfer  a  specimen  hither  : — 

"Sinciput,et vertex,  caput, occiput, et  comaker  inis. 

fjoc  §inci^ltt,  t§,  the  fore  parte  of  the  heed 

^IC  &erte£,  Ct§,     for  the  crowne  of  the  heed 

ijoc  cnput,  i§,       for  a  heed 

f)OC  OCCt^ut,  t§,     the  hynder  parte  of  the  heed 

fjec  COttta,  e,          for  a  brisshe 

^IC  Cttni§,  UtS,     for  a  heer 

A  garment  a  clothe  idem  apparayle 

$)tc  inbumentum          t)e§ti§          t)e§tttu§          atnictu§ 

idem  idem  idem 

£)rnatii§         §imul  apparatus         amiculu§  ibem 

a  cappe  agat  :  e  idem 

<£§ta  ca))ut  Qe§tat  o^jcj  calt^tta 

a  cappe  idem  an  hood  idem 

SBiretum          pUiu§          cucuIuS          co^itiumq ; 


58  Schools,  School-Books, 

Vulgar ia  queda  cusuis  vernaculis  compilata  iuxta 
consuetudinem  ludi  litterarij  diui  Pauli. 

Good  morowe.  SSonit  tifct  f)uiu§  biet  §tt  {mmorbtu. 
Good  nyght.  SBona  nog,  tranquitta  no£,  o^tata  tequie§,  &c- 
Scolers  must  lyue  hardly  at  Oxford. 
©cola§ttco§  Osonit  ))atce  btuere  o^ottet. 
My  fader  hath  had  a  greate  losse  on  the  see. 
$atet  meu§  tnagnd  £  naufragm  tactura  l^aT6utt. 
Wysshers  and  wolders  be  small  housholders. 
9(ffectattfm§  btuttta§  mobtca  l)o§^ttalitate  oB§erviant/' 

The  abridgments  of  Stanbridge's  Accidence 
led,  I  presume,  to  the  distinction  of  the  ori- 
ginal text  as  the  Long  Accidence,  although  I  have 
not  personally  met  with  more  than  a  single 
edition  of  the  work  under  such  a  title.  Dibdin, 
however,  has  a  story  that  John  Bagford  had 
heard  of  one  printed  at  Tavistock,  for  which 
the  said  John  "  would  have  stuck  at  no  price." 

The  chief  of  these  adaptations  of  the  Ac- 
cidence is  the  Parvulorum  Institutio,  which  I 
have  described  as  probably  emanating,  in  the 
first  place,  from  the  earliest  press  for  the  use 
of  the  earliest  known  school  at  Oxford.  But 
it  was  reprinted  with  alterations  by  Stanbridge, 
and  perhaps  by  John  Holt.  In  Dibdin's  account 
of  one  of  these  recensions  he  observes  :— 


and  Schoolmasters. 


59 


"  The  work  begins  immediately  on  sign. 
A  ij:— 'What  is  to  be  done  whan  an  englysshe 
is  gyuen  to  be  made  in  latyn  ?  Fyrst  the 
verbe  must  be  loked  out,  and  yf  there  be 
moo  verbes  than  one  in  a  reason,  I  must 
loke  out  the  pryncypall  verbe  and  aske  this 
questyon  who  or  what,  and  that  word  that 
answereth  to  the  questyon  shall  be  the  no. 
mynatyve  case  to  the  verbe.  Except  it  be  a 
verbe  Impersonell  the  whiche  wyll  haue  no 
nomynative  case.' 

"  On  the  last  leaf  but  one  we  have  as  fol- 
lows :  — 

gnu§  oBgcenu§  febu§          Gice.  qq  hec  au- 
ditu  acerba  sunt. 

tiicunbu§  aB§itrbiiy  tur^e          Tere.turpedictu. 


acerBu§. 


SaluBer. 


miru§  Jmlcfjrum    §it 

tfjere  cornet^  a  fcerBe  after 
§um  e§  fui  twtfjoiit  a  tetatt}t)e  or  a 
comuncctjott  l)f  it  Be  of  tfje  actt)iie 
§tjgnt)ft)cact)3n  it  §f)att  Be  put  in  a 
of  t§e  ft)r§t  §uterten§  t)f 
be  of  t^e  ^a§^ue  §t)nt)fac6n  f^e 
Be  jwt  in  t^e  parttjc^le  of 
t^e  latter  §uterten§,  ejcept  ejulo, 
trnpulo,  tJeneo,  fio. 


Qui.  multa  dictu 
visuq;  miranda. 

Teretius.  quid- 
na  incepturus  es. 

Tere.  uxor  tibi 
ducenda  est  pa- 
phyle  Te  oro  vt 
nuptie  que  fuerant 
future  fiant. 


60  Schools,  School-Books, 

IV.  Robert  Whittinton,  whose  name  is  pro- 
bably more  familiar  to  the  ordinary  student 
than  that  of  the  man  from  whom  he  derived 
his  knowledge  and  tastes,  was  a  native  of  War- 
wickshire, and  was  born  at  Lichfield  about 
1480 — perhaps  a  little  before.  He  received 
his  education,  as  I  have  stated,  at  the  Free 
School  at  Oxford,  and  is  supposed  to  have 
gained  admission  to  one  of  the  colleges  ;  but 
of  this  there  is  not  certainty.  He  subsequently 
acquired,  however,  the  distinction  of  being  de- 
corated with  the  laurel  wreath  by  the  Univer- 
sity of  Oxford  for  his  proficiency  in  grammar 
and  rhetoric,  with  leave  to  read  publicly  any 
of  the  logical  writings  of  Aristotle ;  and  he 
assumed  the  title  of  Protovates  Angliae,  and 
the  credit  of  having  been  the  first  Englishman 
who  was  laureated. 

It  is  certain  that  Whittinton  became  a  teacher 
like  his  master  Stanbridge,  and  among  his 
scholars  he  counted  William  Lily,  the  eminent 
grammarian  ;  but  where  he  so  established  him- 
self is  not  so  clear,  nor  do  we  known  the  cir- 
cumstances or  date  of  his  decease. 

I  am  going  to  do  my  best  to  lay  before  the 


and  Schoolmasters.  61 

reader  of  these  pages  a  clear  bibliographical 
outline  of  Whittinton's  literary  performances  ; 
and  it  seems  to  amount  to  this,  that  he  has 
left  to  us,  apart  from  a  few  miscellaneous 
effusions,  eleven  distinct  treatises  on  the  parts 
of  grammar,  all  doubtless  more  or  less  based 
on  the  researches  and  consonant  with  the  doc- 
trines of  his  immediate  master  Anniquil  and 
the  foreign  professors  of  the  same  art,  whose 
works  had  found  their  way  into  England,  and 
had  even,  as  in  the  case  of  Sulpicius  and 
Perottus,  been  adopted  by  the  English  press. 

I  will  first  give  the  titles  of  the  several  pieces 
succinctly,  and  then  proceed  to  furnish  a  slight 
description  of  each  :  — 


1.  De  Nominum  Generibis. 

2.  Declinationes  Nominum. 

H.  De  Syllabarum  Quantitate,  &c. 
4.  Verborum  Piwtei-ita  et  Supina. 

6.  De  Oclo  Partibus  Orationis. 

7.  De  Heteroclitis  Nominibus. 

8.  De  Concinnitate  Grammatices  et  Constructione. 

9.  Syntaxis.     [A  recension  of  No.  8.] 
10.  Vulgaria. 

11.  Lucubrationes. 


62  Schools,  School-Books, 

These  eleven  fasciculi  actually  form  altogether 
one  system,  and  some  of  them  have  their  order 
of  succession  in  the  author's  arrangement  in- 
dicated ;  as,  for  instance,  the  Verborum  Prvete- 
rita  ct  Supina,  which  is  called  the  Fifth  Book 
of  the  First  Part;  but  others  are  deficient  in 
this  clue,  so  that  if  one  classes  them,  it  must 
be  in  one's  own  wav. 


V.  The  treatise  on  the  Kinds  of  Nouns,  in 
one  of  the  numerous  editions  of  it  at  least,  is 
designated  Primoe  Partis  Liber  Primus,  which 
seems  and  inducement  to  yield  it  the  foremost 
place  in  the  series.  But  it  will  be  presently 
observed  that,  although  the  collection  in  a 
complete  state  is  susceptible  of  a  consecutive 
arrangement,  the  pieces  composing  it  did  not, 
so  far  as  we  can  tell,  follow  each  other  origin- 
ally in  strict  order  of  time. 

Of  the  tract  on  the  Declensions  of  Nouns, 
which  stands  second  in  order,  Dibdin  supplies 
us  with  a  specimen  : — 


and  Schoolmasters.  63 


De  nto   singu-     2(ncljt§e  et  35e=  (£api§  ftltu§    Cut  fingtt  elegan- 

lari  prime  de-      nert§  ftliu§,  eg,  ut  9ln=       tio  carmina.  a, 
clinationis.        a§,  ut  ?lenea§         c¥)t§e§.  ut  poeta. 

Rectus  as,  es,  a  ;   simul  am  dat  flexio  prima. 


ut 

mu§ae  mu§ae 

De   gto    et  dto      Ac  dat  dipthongum  genitiuus  sic  que  datiuus  - 
singularibus  f)t  ))oele         o  |)0ete 

et  nto  et  veto      Singularis,sie  pluralis  primus  quoque  quintus 
pluralibu.  familte  et  cwlai  pro  aulae 

t)t  f)iuu§  l^UtC 

familial  ptctai  pro  Jrictae. 

Olim  rectus  in  a,  genito  dedit  as  simul  ai. 
t)t  fjtc  ^uba§,  ^utit§  3uber  bel  3uba 
Ex  Judas  Juda  aut  Judae  dat  pagina  sacra 

tit  f)tc  5lbam  ^utit§  5lbam.  fjutc  5lbam,  &c. 

Barbara    in    am   propria   aut    a    recto     non 
variantur.  " 

We  must  now  pass  to  the  treatise  De  Sylla- 
barum  Quantitate,  which,  in  a  chronological  re- 
pect,  ranks  first  among  Whittinton's  works,  as 
there  was  an  edition  of  it  as  early  as  1513. 

The  tripartite  volume,  1.  On  the  Quantity 
of  Syllables  ;  2.  On  Accent  ;  and  3.  On  the 
Roman  Magistrates,  is  noteworthy  on  two  ac- 
counts. The  second  portion  embraces  the 
earliest  specimen  in  any  English  book  of  the 


64  Schools,  School-Books, 

poems  of  Horace,  and  the  concluding  section 
is  a  kind  of  rudimentary  Lempriere.  Subjoined 
is  a  sample  of  the  lines  upon  accents,  from 
Dibdin  :  — 


tonit§  e»t  ))cr  que  fit  §t)llafia  quet>t§ 
(Sogntta  :  qnabo  acui  beBet,  bel  qii  gratart 
2lccentit§  triples  ;  fit  acutit*  fcel  cjrat>i§,  inbe 
(Bt  ctrcuf(e£u§  :  qui  mine  fit  ratu§  in  b§u. 

cum  tenbtt  §uryiim  e§t  accentu§  acutu§ 
accentu§  §eb  §t)ltaba  ^re§§a  beor§um 
^tt  ctrciif(e£U§  gtat)i§  in  pritua  :  §eb  in  altum 
5lttolltt  ntcbtant,  |)o§txema  gtat)t§  recibitque.  " 


This  metrical  exposition,  which  will  not  be 
mistaken  for  the  language  of  Horace,  is  follo- 
wed by  a  commentary  in  prose. 

The  next  three  divisions  do  not  call  for  any 
particular  criticism.  They  treat  of  the  Eight 
Parts  of  Speech,  the  Irregular  Nouns,  and  the 
Laivs  of  Grammatical  Construction,  of  which  the 
last  is  the  first  cast  of  the  Syntax. 

There  remain  the  Vulgar  ia  and  the  Lucu- 
brations, which  are  far  more  important  and 
interesting,  and  of  which  there  were  numerous 
editions.  The  subjoined  samples  will  shew  the 
principle  on  which  the  Vulgaria  was  com- 
piled :— 


and  Schoolmasters.  65 

tb  Befe  and  motion  is  so  dere,  that  a  peny 
worth  of  meet  wyll  scant  sufTyse  a  boy  at  a 
meale. 

"  Whan  I  was  a  scholler  of  Oxforthe  I  lyued 
competently  with  vii.  pens  commens  wekely. 

"  Be  of  good  chere  man  for  I  sawe  ryght 
nowe  a  rodde  made  of  wythye  for  the,  gar- 
nysshed  with  knottes.  it  wolde  do  a  boy  good 
to  loke  vpon  it. 

"A  busshell  of  whete  washoldeat  xii.  pens. 

"A  gallon  of  swete  wyne  is  at  viii.  pens  in 
London. 

"  A  gallon  of  ale  is  at  a  peny  and  ferdynge. 

"  I  warne  the  fro  hens  forthe  medle  not  with 
my  bokes.  Thou  blurrest  and  blottest  them, 
as  thou  were  a  bletchy  sowter." 

Such  bits  as  these  were  decidedly  worth  ex- 
tracting, yet  Dibdin,  with  the  very  copy  of  the 
book  from  which  they  are  derived  before  him, 
let  them  pass.  In  this  volume  Whittinton  takes 
occasion  to  speak  in  eulogistic  terms  of  Sir 
Thomas  More. 

Of  the  Lucubrations  the  most  interesting 
portion  to  an  English  reader  will  be  the  Syno- 
nyms : — 

E 


66 


Schools,  School-Books, 


"  To  arraye  or 

To  backbyte. 

The  goute. 

to  (Ujcj)it. 

Detraho 

Ar  the  sis 

Omo 

Detracto 

Arthtica  passio 

Vestio 

Ob  t  recto 

Morbus  articular! 

Amu-io 

Maledico 

Chiragra 

Tnduo 

Carpo 

Podagra 

Como 

&c.  &c.  &c. 

Colo 

A  K  (('(/an  or 

To  plat/e  the 

To  be  u'u(h>. 

outlandysshe. 

brothell. 

Seuio 

Alienag.-na 

Scortari 

Furio 

Peregrinus 

Prostitui 

Insanio 

Aduena 

Fornicari 

Excandeseor 

Alienus 

Merere 

Bacchor 

Kxterus 

Struprari 

Wodnesse  or 

Extern  us 

Adulterari 

madnesse. 

Tarbarus 

Cohire 

Insania 

Extraneus 

Concumbere 

Sevicia?. 

&c.  &c. 

Furor.  " 

The  copious  storehouse  of  equivalent  phrases 
in  Latin  composition  shews  us  in  what  wide 
vogue  that  language  was  in  England  at  this 
period,  as  there  is  no  corresponding  facility 
offered  for  persons  desirous  of  enlarging  their 
English  vocabulary.  The  influence  of  the 
scholars  of  France,  Italy,  Holland,  and  Ger- 
many ~  long  kept  our  vernacular  in  the  back- 
ground, and  retarded  the  study  of  English  by 
Englishmen ;  but  the  uprise  of  a  taste  for  the 


and  Schoolmasters.  67 

French  and  Italian  probably  gave  the  first 
serious  blow  to  the  supremacy  of  the  dead 
tongues,  as  they  are  called,  and  it  became  by 
degrees  as  fashionable  for  gentlemen  and  ladies 
to  read  and  speak  the  languages  in  which 
Moliere  and  Tasso  wrote  as  the  hybrid  dialect 
in  which  erudite  foreigners  had  been  used  to 
correspond  and  compose. 

Whittinton  styles  himself  on  the  title-pages 
of  several  of  his  pieces  laureatus  and  protovates 
Anglice.  In  one  place  he  speaks  of  being 
"  primus  in  Anglia  lauri  coronam  gestans, " 
and  elsewrhere  he  professes  to  be  magistergram- 
maticcs.  As  Warton  and  others  have  specu- 
lated a  good  deal  on  the  real  nature  and  import 
of  the  dignity  which  this  early  scholar  claimed 
in  regard  to  the  laurel  crown  or  wreath,  it 
may  be  worth  noting  that  Wood  furnishes  the 
annexed  explanation  of  the  point  :— 

u  In  the  beginning  of  the  year  1513,  he 
supplicated  the  venerable  congregation  of  re- 
gents under  the  name  and  title  of  Robert 
"Whittington,  a  secular  chaplain  and  a  scholar 
of  the  art  of  rhetoric  ;  that,  whereas  he  had 
spent  fourteen  years  in  the  study  of  the  said 


68        Schools  and  Schoolmasters. 

art,  and  twelve  years  in  the  informing  of  boys, 
it  might  be  sufficient  for  him  that  he  might  be 
laureated.  This  supplication  being  granted,  he 
was,  after  he  had  composed  an  hundred  verses^ 
which  were  stuck  up  in  public  places,  especially 
on  the  door  or  doors  of  St.  Mary's  Church 
[Oxford],  very  solemnly  crowned, or  his  temples 
adorned  with  a  wreath  of  laurel,  that  his,  deco- 
rated in  the  arts  of  grammar  and  rhetoric,  4 
July  the  same  year.  " 

The  biographer  of  Colet  is  undoubtedly  cor- 
rect in  supposing  that  the  ancient  poet-laureat- 
ship  was  nothing  more  than  an  academical 
degree,  and  that  in  this  sense,  and  in  no  other, 
Skelton  bore  that  designation,  as  well  as  Ber- 
nardus  Andreas,  who  was  tutor  to  Prince 
Arthur,  elder  brother  of  Henry  VIII. 

It  also  appears  from  the  account  of  the 
decoration  of  Whittinton  that  he  had  com- 
menced his  qualification  for  a  schoolmaster  as 
far  back  as  1499,  which  is  reconcilable  with 
the  date  assigned  to  his  birth  (1480). 


(     69    ) 


V. 

Educational  tracts  produced  by  other  writers— Parv ula— 
Holt's  Milk  for  Children — Horrnan's  Vulgaria  and  its 
singular  curiosity  and  value — The  author's  literary 
quarrel  with  \Vhittinton-The  contemporary  foreign 
teachers— Specimen  of  the  Grammar  of  Guaiini  of 
Verona  (1470)— Vestiges  of  the  literature  current  at 
Oxford  in  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century— The 
printed  works  ot  Johanes  de  Garlandia. 

I.  OF  independent  tracts  intended  for  the 
use  of  our  early  schools,  there  were  several 
either  anonymous  or  written  by  persons  whom 
we  do  not  recognise  as  writers  of  more  than  a 
single  production. 

In  the  former  category  is  placeable  the  small 
piece  published  three  or  four  times  by  Wynkyn 
de  Worde  about  1509,  under  the  title  of  Par- 
vula  or  Longe  Parvula.  It  is  a  series  of  rules 
for  translation  and  other  exercises  in  the  form 
of  question  and  answer,  thus  : — 


70  Schools,  School-Book*, 

UQ.  What  shall  them  do  whan  them  hast  an 
englysshe  to  make  in  latyn  ? 

"  A.  I  shal  reherse  myne  englysshe  ones, 
twyes,  or  thryes,  and  loke  out  my  pryncypal, 
&  aske  y  questyon,  who  or  what." 

A  second  publication  is  the  Milk  for  Children 
of  John  Holt,  of  Magdalen  College,  Oxford, 
who  had  the  honour  of  numbering  among  his 
pupils  Sir  Thomas  More.  One  of  the  most 
interesting  points  about  the  little  book  to  us 
nowadays  is  that  it  is  accompanied  by  some 
Latin  hexameters  and  pentameters  and  an  epi- 
gram in  the  same  language  by  More.  The 
latter  has  the  air  of  having  been  sent  to  Holt, 
and  insei'ted  by  him  with  the  heading  which 
occurs  before  it,  where  the  future  Chancellor 
is  termed  "disertus  adolescentulus. " 

A  decided  singulaiity  of  this  volume  is  the 
quaint  device  of  the  author  f  >r  impressing 
his  precepts  on  those  who  read  his  pages  or 
attended  his  academy  by  arranging  the  cases 
and  declensions  on  woodcuts  in  the  shape  of 
outstretched  hands. 

Besides  his  Milk  for  Children  and  the  Par- 
vulorum  Institiitio,  to  the  latter  of  which  I  have 


and  Schoolmasters.  71 

already  referred,  Holt  appears  to  me  the  most 
likely  person  to  have  compiled  the  tract  called 
Accidentia  ex  Stanbrigiana  Collectione,  a  small 
grammatical  manual  based  on  that  of  his  pre- 
decessor or  even  colleague  at  Magdalen  School; 
and  this  may  be  the  work  to  which  Knight 
points  were  he  says  that  Holt  put  forth  an 
Accidence  and  Grammar  concurrently  with  his 
other  tract,  though  the  biographer  of  Dean 
Colet  errs  in  placing  Stanbridge  after  Holt  in 
chronological  sequence. 

Another  of  the  miscellaneous  unofficial  pieces, 
answering  very  nearly  to  the  mediaeval  Nomi- 
nate, has  no  other  title  than  Os,  Fades,  menttim, 
and  is  a  Latin  poem  descriptive  of  the  human 
form,  first  printed  in  1508,  with  an  interlinear 
English  gloss.  It  begins  thus  :  — 

a  mouthe      a  face       a  chyne       a  toth  a  throot  a  tonge 

Os            facies         rnentii         dens  gutlur  lingua 

a  1  erde     a  browe       abrye    a  forhede  teples  a  lype 

Barba  supercilium     cilii'i          frons  tepora  lubrii 

roffe  of  the  mouth 

pal  a  turn 

There  is  nothing,  of  course,  on  the  one  hand, 
recondite,  or,  on  the  other,  very  edifying  in  this ; 
but  it  is  a  sample  of. the  method  pursued  in  these 
little  ephemerides  nearly  four  centuries  ago. 


72  Schools,  School-Books, 

II.  The  comparative  study  of  Latin  and 
English  acquired  increased  prominence  under 
the  Tudors;  and  in  addition  to  the  regular 
text-books  compiled  by  such  men  as  Stanbridge 
and  Whittinton,  there  is  quite  a  small  library  of 
pieces  designed  for  educational  purposes,  and 
framed  on  a  similar  model.  Doubtless  these 
were  in  many  cases  accepted  in  the  schools  on 
an  equal  footing  with  the  productions  of  the 
masters  themselves,  or  the  latter  may  have  had 
a  hand,  very  possibly,  in  those  which  we  have 
to  treat  as  anonymous. 

Between  the  commencement  and  middle  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  during  the  reigns  of  the 
first  and  second  Tudors,  there  were  several  of 
these  unclaimed  and  unidentified  compilations, 
such  as  the  Grammatica  Latino-Anglica,  Trac- 
tatus  tie  octo  oriatonis  partibus,  and  Brief  Rides 
of  the  Regiment  or  construction  of  the  Eight 
Parts  of  Speech,  in  English  and  Latin,  1537. 

The  Introductorium  linguoe  Latince  by  W.  H. 
may  perhaps  be  ascribed  to  William  Herman, 
of  whom  we  shall  have  more  to  say ;  and  there 
are  also  in  the  category  of  works  which  had  no 
particular  width  or  duration  of  currency  the 


and  Schoolmasters.  73 

Gradus  Comparationum  of  Johannes  Bello- 
mayus,  and  the  Reyulce  Information-is  of  John 
Barchby. 

These,  and  others,  again,  of  which  all  trace 
has  at  present  disappeared,  were  employed  in 
common  with  the  regular  series,  constantly 
kept  in  print,  of  Whittinton  and  Stanbridge, 
prior  to  the  rise  of  the  great  public  seminaries, 
many  of  which,  as  it  will  be  my  business  to 
shew,  took  into  use  certain  compilations  sup- 
posed to  be  specially  adapted  to  their  require- 
ments. 

William  Herman,  who  is  presumed  to  have 
been  the  author  of  the  Introductorium  above 
mentioned,  was  schoolmaster  and  Fellow  of 
Eton  College;  in  1477  he  became  a  perpetual 
Fellow  of  New  College,  Oxford,  and  he  was 
eventually  chosen  Vice-Provost  of  Eton.  He  sur- 
vived till  1535.  From  an  epigram  appended  to 
the  volume  it  is  to  be  gleaned  that  Horman 
was  a  pupil  of  Dr.  Caius,  poet-laureate  to 
Edward  the  Fourth.  , 

Of  the  Gradus  Comparationum  the  subjoined 
may  be  received  as  a  specimen  :— 

••  What  nowrnes  make  comparyson?  All  ad- 


74  Schools,   School-Books, 

iec  yues  welnere  y  betoken  athynge  that  maye 
be  made  more  or  lesse  :  ns  fayre:  fayrer  :  fay- 
rest  :  black,  blacker,  blackest.  How  many 
deg-ess  of  comparacyon  ben  there?  iij.  the 
positiue  y  comparatiue  &  the  superlatyue. 
How  knowe  ye  the  posituye  gedre  ?  For  he  is 
the  groude  and  the  begynner  of  all  other  de- 
grees of  co-par yson.  How  know  ye  the  com- 
paratyue  degre  ?  for  he  passeih  his  posityue 
with  this  englysshe  more,  or  his  englysshe  end- 
eth  in  r,  as  more  wryse  or  wyser.  How  knowe 
ye  the  superlatyue  degre?  for  he  passeth  his 
posityue  with  engysshe  moost:  or  his  englisshe 
endeth  in  est :  as  moost  fayre  or  fayrest,  moost 
whyte  or  whytest." 

TIL  The  Vulgar ia  of  William  Horman,  1519, 
is  perhaps  one  of  the  most  intrinsically  curious 
and  valuable  publications  in  the  entire  range 
of  our  early  philological  literature.  It  would  be 
easy  to  till  such  a  slender  volume  as  that  in  the 
hands  of  the  reader  with  samples  of  the  con- 
tents without  exhausting  the  store,  but  I  must 
content  myself  with  such  extracts  as  seem  most 
entertaining  and  instructive  : — 


and    Schoolmasters.  75 

"Physicians,  that  be  all  sette  to  wynne  money, 
bye  and  sylle  our  lyues  :  and  so  ofte  tymes  we 
Lye  deth  with  a  great  and  a  sore  pryce.  Aninias 
nostrils  (cruscatori's  medicineyociantiir,  ci'c. 

"Papyre  fyrstewas  made  of  a  certeyne  stuffe 
like  Ihe  pythe  of  a  bulrushe  in  ^Egypt  :  and 
svth  it  is  made  of  lynnen  clothe  soked  in  water, 
stable  or  grade  pressed  and  smothed.  Charter, 
sen  2>ffj>y)'i,  tlv. 

"The  greattest  and  hyest  of  pryce  :  is  papyre 
irnperyall.  Auc/ustissimum  papyrum,  &c. 

''The  prynters  haue  fonnde  a  crafte  to  make 
bokis  by  brasen  letters  sette  inordre  by  a  frame. 
Cnlcoyraphi  arte,  &c. 

"Pryntynge  hathe  almooste  vndone  scry- 
uenei's  crafte.  Chalcoyraphia  Ubrarioru  qstu 
pene  cxhavsit. 

ccYf  the  prynters  take  more  hede  to  the  hast- 
ynge  :  than  to  the  true  settynge  of  theyr  moldis  : 
the  warke  is  vtterly  marred.  SI  qui  libros, 
&;-7 

The  rest  are  given  without  the  Latin  equiva- 
lents, which  have  no  particular  interest. 

uScryueners  write  with  blacke,  redde,  purple, 
gren,  blewe,  or  byce  :  and  suche  other. 


76  Schools,  School-Books, 

Parchement  leues  be  wonte  to  be  ruled  :  that 
there  may  be  acomly  marget:  also  streytelynes 
of  equal  distaunce  be  drawe  withyn  :  that  the 
\vryttyng  may  shewe  fayre. 

Olde  or  doting  chourles  can  not  suflre  yo^e 
children  to  be  mery. 

I  haue  lefte  my  boke  in  the  tennys  playe. 

This  ynke  is  no  better  than  blatche. 

Frobeynes  prynt  is  called  better  than  Aldus  : 
but  yet  Aldus  is  neuer  the  lesse  thanke  worthy  : 
for  he  began  the  fynest  waye  :  and  left  sauple 
by  the  whiche  other  were  lyghtly  provoked  and 
taughte  to  deuyse  better. 

There  is  come  a  scoolle  of  fysshe. 

The  terns  is  frosne  ouer  with  yse. 

The  trompettours  blowe  a  fytte  or  a  motte. 

Vitelarsthryue:  by  getheryngeofgood  felowes 
that  haue  swete  mouth es. 

The  mokis  of  charter-house  :  neuer  ete  fleshe 
mete. 

We  shall  drynke  methe  or  metheglen. 

We  shall  haue  a  iuncket  after  dyner. 

Serue  me  with  pochyd  eggis. 

He  kepeth  rere  suppers  tyll  mydnyght. 

Se  that  I  lacke  nat  by  my  beddes  syde  a 


and  Schoolmasters.  77 

chayer  of  easement  :  with  a  vessel  vnder  :  and 
an  vriftall  bye. 

Women  couette  to  sytte  on  lowe  or  pote 
stolys  :  men  upon  twyse  so  hye. 

It  is  couenyent  that  a  man  haue  one  seueral 
place  in  his  house  to  hymselfe  fro  cubrance  of 
wome. 

Women  muste  haue  one  place  to  themselfe 
to  tyffil  themselfe  and  kepe  theyr  apparell.  \ 

They  whyte  theyr  face,  necke  and  pappis 
with  cerusse  :  and  theyr  Jyppis  and  ruddis  with 
purpurisse. 

Tumblers,  houndes,  that  can  goo  on  huntynge 
by  them  selfe  :  brynge  home  theyr  praye. 

Lytel  popies,  that  serueth  for  ladies,  were 
sutyme  bellis  :  sutyme  colers  ful  of  prickkis  for 
theyr  defece. 

1  haue  layde  many  gynnys,  pottis,and  other  : 
for  to  take  fisshe. 

Some  fisshe  scatre  at  the  nette. 

Ponies  steple  is  a  mighty  great  thyng/  and  so 
hye  that  vneth  a  man  may  discerne  the  wether 
cocke. 

It  is  an  olde  duty  /  and  an  auncyent  cus- 
tume  ;  that  the  Mavre  of  London  with  his 


78  Schools,  School-Books, 

bretherne  shall  offer  at  Ponies  certayne  dayes 
in  the  yere. 

In  London  be  .  lij.  parysshe  chyrches. 

Two  or  .  iij.  neses  be  holsome:  one  is  a 
shrowed  toke." 

These  selected  extracts  will  convey  some 
notion  of  the  unusual  curiosity  of  the  Vulgaria 
of  Herman,  of  which  a  second  edition  came 
out  in  1530 ;  it  is  so  far  rather  surprising  that 
it  did  not  prove  more  popular.  But  it  had  to 
enter  into  competition  with  books  of  a  similar 
title  anb!  cast  by  Stanbridge  and  Whittinton, 
who  had  their  established  connection  to  assist 
the  sale  of  their  publications. 

The  concluding  item  in  this  list  of  educa- 
tional performances  is  alsoacuriouspbilological 
relic,  and  a  factor  in  the  illustration  of  the  im- 
perfect mastery  of  English  by  foreigners  of  all 
periods  and  almost  all  countries.  I  allude  to 
an  edition  of  the  Declensions  of  the  learned 
Parisian  printer  Ascensius  with  an  English 
gloss.  The  tract  was  evidently  printed  abroad; 
and  I  am  tempted  to  transcribe  the  paragraph 
on  Punctuation,  as  it  may  afford  an  idea  of  the 
nature  of  the  publication  and  of  the  English  of 


and  Schoolmasters.  79 

that  day  as  written  by  a  foreigner.  It  will  be 
observed  that  the  author  seems  to  confound 
the  comma  and  the  colon  :— 


u  Of  the  craft  of  poyntiny. 

"  Therbe  fine  maner  poyntys  /  and  diuisios 
most  vside  with  cunnyng  men  :  the  whiche  if 
they  be  wel  vsid  :  make  the  sentens  very  light  / 
and  esy  to  vnderstod  both  to  the  reder  &  the 
herer.  &  they  be  these  :  virgil/come/paruthesis/ 
playne  poynt  /  and  interrogatif.  A  virgil  is  a 
scleder  stryke  :  lenynge  forward e  thiswyse  /  be 
tokynynge  a  lytyl  /  short  rest  without  any  per- 
fetnes  yet  of  sentens :  asbetwene  the  fiuepoyntis 
a  fore  rehersid.  A  come  is  with  tway  titils  this- 
wyse :  betokynyng  a  lenger  rest :  and  the  setens 
yet  ether  is  vnperfet :  or  els  if  it  be  perfet :  ther 
cumith  more  after  /  logyng  to  it  :  the  which 
more  comynlycan  not  be  perfect  by  itself  with- 
out at  the  lest  sumat  of  it :  that  gothe  a  fore. 
A  parenthesis  is  with  tway  crokyd  virgils  :  as  an 
olde  mone  /  &  a  neu  bely  to  bely  :  the  whiche 
be  set  theron  afore  the  begynyng  /  and  thetother 
after  the  latyr  ende  of  a  clause  :  comyng  with- 


80  Schools,  School-Books^ 

in  an  other  clause  :  that  may  be  perfet :  thof 
the  clause  /  so  comyng  betwene  :  wer  awey  and 
therfore  it  is  sowndyde  comynly  a  note  lower: 
than  the  vtter  clause,  yf  the  setens  cannot  be 
perfet  without  the  ynner  clause  :  then  stede  of 
the  first  crokyde  virgil  a  streght  virgil  wol  do 
very  wel :  and  stede  of  the  latyr  must  nedis  be 
a  come.  A  playne  point  is  with  won  tittil  this- 
wyse.  &  it  cumith  after  the  ende  of  al  the  whole 
setens  betokinyng  a  loge  rest.  An  'iterrogatif 
is  with  tway  titils  :  the  vppir  rysyng  this  wyse? 
&  it  cumith  after  the  ende  of  a  whole  reason  : 
wheryn  ther  is  sum  question  ax  side,  the  whiche 
ende  of  the  reson  /  tariyng  as  it  were  for  an 
answare  ;  risyth  vpwarde  .  we  haue  made  these 
rulis  in  englisshe  :  by  cause  they  be  as  profit- 
able /  and  necessary  to  be  kepte  in  euery  moder 
tuge  /  as  I  latin.  |j  Sethyn  we  (as  we  wolde  to 
god  :  euery  precher  [  ?  techer]  wolde  do)  haue 
kepte  owre  rulis  bothe  in  owre  englisshe  /  and 
latyn  :  what  nede  we  /  sethyn  owre  own  be 
sufficient  ynogh  :  to  put  any  other  exemplis." 

VI.  It  is  perhaps  fruitless  to  offer  any  vague 
conjecture  as  to  the  authorship  of  the  Ascencian 


and    Schoolmasters.  81 

Declensions.  Many  Englishmen  resident  in 
Paris,  Antwerp,  and  Germany  might  have  edited 
such  a  hook.  The  ortography  and  punctua- 
tion are  alike  peculiar,  and  suspiciously  redolent, 
it  may  be  considered,  of  a  foreign  parentage  ; 
but  one  of  our  countrymen  who  had  long 
resided  abroad,  or  who  had  even  been  educated 
out  of  England,  might  very  well  have  been 
guilty  of  such  slips  as  we  find  here.  A  Thomas 
Robertson  of  York,  of  whom  I  shall  have  more 
presently  to  say,  was  a  few  years  later  in  com- 
munication with  the  printers  and  publishers  of 
Switzerland,  and  became  the  editor  of  a  text 
of  Lily  the  grammarian.  Robertson,  as  a 
Northern  man,  was  apt,  in  writing  English,  to 
introduce  certain  provincialisms  ;  and  I  put  it, 
though  merely  as  a  guess,  that  he  might  have 
executed  this  commission,  as  he  did  the  other, 
for  Bebelius  of  Basle. 

Two  years  subsequently  to  the  appearance 
of  his  Vulgar  ia^  Herman  involved  himself  in  a 
literary  controversy  with  Whittinton  inconse- 
quence of  an  attack  which  he  had  made  on  the 
laureate's  grammatical  productions  in  a  printed 
Epistle  to  Lily ;  it  was  the  beginning  of  a  move- 

F 


82  Schools,  School-Books, 

ment  for  reforming  or  remodelling  the  current 
educational  literature,  and  llorman  himself  was 
a  man  of  superior  character  and  literary  trai- 
ning, as  we  are  able  to  judge  from  the  way  in 
which  he  acquitted  himself  of  his  own  contri- 
bution to  this  class  of  work. 

A, curious  and  very  interesting  account  of  the 
dispute  between  Lily  and  Herman,  in  which 
Robert  Whittinton  and  a  fourth  grammarian 
named  Aldrich  became  involved,  is  given  by 
Maitland  in  his  Notices  of  the  Lambeth  Palace 
Library.  I  elsewhere  refer  to  the  warm  alter- 
cation b?tween  Sir  John  Gheke  and  Bishop 
Gardiner  on  the  pronunciation  of  Greek.  Both 
these  matters  have  to  be  added  to  a  new  edi- 
tion of  Disreali's  Quarrels  of  Authors. 

The  Salernitan  gentleman  (Andrea  Guarna) 
who  set  the  Noun  and  the  Verb  together  by  the 
ears  in  his  Grammar  War,  acted,  no  doubt, 
more  discreetly,  since  he  reserved  to  himself 
the  power  to  terminate  the  fray  which  he  had 
commenced. 

VII.  Generally  speaking,  it  is  the  case  that 
the  men  who  compiled  the  curious  and  highly 


and  Schoolmasters.  83 

valuable  Manuals  of  Instruction  during  the 
Middle  Ages  were  superseded  and  effaced  by 
others  following  in  their  track  and  profiting  by 
their  experience.  The  bulk  of  these  more 
ancient  treatises,  such  as  I  have  described, 
still  remained  ?n  MS.  till  of  recent  years,  like 
the  college  text-books,  which  are  yet  some- 
times left  imprinted  from  choice  ;  and  after  the 
introduction  of  typography  the  teaching  and 
learning  public  accorded  a  preference  to  those 
scholars  who  constructed  their  system  on 
more  modern  lines,  and  whose  method  was  at 
once  more  intelligible  and  more  efficient. 

Of  all  the  names  with  which  we  have  be- 
come familiar,  the  only  one  which  seems  to 
have  survived  is  Johannes  de  Garlandia ;  and 
it  is  remarkable,  again,  that  the  two  works  from 
his  pen  which  passed  the  London  press,  the 
Verborum  Explicatio  and  the  Synonyma,  are  by 
no  means  comparable  in  merit  or  in  interest  to 
the  Dictionary  already  noticed.  Subsequently 
to  the  rise  of  the  English  Grammatical  School 
the  reputation  and  popularity  of  Garlandia 
evidently  suffered  a  permanent  decline,  and  we 
hear  and  feel  no  more  of  him. 


84  Schools,  School-Books, 

A  new  generation,  trained  in  foreign  schools 
or  under  foreign  tutors,  set  themselves  the  task 
of  forming  educational  centres,  and  of  intro- 
ducing the  people  of  England  to  a  conversance 
with  the  foundations  of  learning  and  culture 
by  more  expeditious  and  efl'ectual  methods  ; 
and  as  from  Scrooby  in  Lincolnshire  a  small 
knot  of  resolute  men  went  forth  in  the  May 
Flower  to  lay  the  first  stone  of  that  immense 
constitutional  edifice,  the  United  States  of 
America,  so  from  an  humble  school  at  Oxford 
sprang  the  pioneers  of  all  English  grammatical 
lore — Anriiquil;  his  usher,  Stanbridge  ;  Stan- 
bridge's  pupil,  Whittinton;  and  Whittinton's 
pupil,  Lily. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  during  three 
hundred  years  all  our  great  men,  all  our  nobility, 
all  our  princes,  owed  to  this  hereditary  dynasty, 
as  it  were,  the  elementary  portion  of  their 
scholastic  and  academical  breeding,  and  that 
no  section  of  our  literature  can  boast  of  so  long 
a  celebrity  and  utility  as  the  Grammatical  Sum- 
mary which  is  best  known  as  Lily's  Short 
Introduction,  and  which  in  most  of  its  essentials 
corresponds  with  the  system  employed  by  those 


and  Schoolmasters.  85 

who  preceded  him  and  those  who  followed  him 
almost  within  the  recollection  of  our  grand- 
fathers. It  was  reserved  for  scholars  of  a  very 
different  temper  and  type  to  overthrow  his 
ancient  empire,  and  establish  one  of  their  own; 
and  this  is  a  revolution  which  dates  from  yes- 
terday. 

At  the  period  when  the  school  at  Magdalen 
was  established  byBi  shop  Way  nflete,  the  teachers 
in  our  own  country  and  on  the  Continent  were 
working  on  nearly  parallel  lines,  just  as  the 
religious  service-books  printed  at  Paris  and 
Rouen  were  made,  by  a  few  subsidiary  altera- 
tions, to  answer  the  Englih  use;  and  indeed  in 
the  case  of  the  grammatical  system  of  Sulpicius 
avn  impression  was  executed  at  Paris  in  1511  for 
Wynkyn  de  Worde,  and  imported  hither  for 
sale,  without  any  differences  or  variations  from 
the  text  employed  in  the  Parisian  gymnasium 
and  elsewhere  through  the  French  dominions. 
It  was  not  till  the  English  element  in  these 
books  gained  the  ascendancy,  having  been  in- 
troduced by  furtive  degrees  and  by  way  of  occa- 
sional or  incidental  illustration,  that  a  marked 
native  character  was  stamped  on  our  school- 


86  Schools,  School-Books, 

books.  Ultimately,  as  we  know,  the  Latin 
proportion  sensibly  diminished,  and  even  a 
preponderant  share  of  space  was  accorded  Jo 
the  vernacular.  ; 

I  have  spoken  of  ^Elius  Donatus  as  an  author 
whose  Grammar  enjoyed  a  long  celebrity  and 
an  enormously  wide  acceptance,  down  from  his 
own  age  to  the  date  of  the  revival  of  learning. 
It  was  used  throughout  the  Continent,  in  Eng- 
land, and  in  Scotland; 

But  prior  to  our  earliest  race  of  native  gram- 
marians and  philologists,  there  were  several 
labourers  in  this  great  and  fruitful  field,  who 
began,  towards  the  latter  end  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  to  cast  off  the  trammels  of  the  Roman 
professor,  and  to  set  up  little  systems  of  their 
own,  of  course  more  or  less  built  upon  Donatius. 

Such  an  one  was  Guarini  of  Verona,  whose 
Bcyulce  Grammaticales  were  originally  published 
at  Venice  in  1470,  and  are  regarded  as  one 
of  the  earliest  specimens  of  her  prolific  press. 
These  rules  were  frequently  reissued,  and  I 
have  before  me  an  edition  of  1494. 

The  book,  which  consists  only  of  twenty-two 
leaves  or  forty-four  pages,begins  with  describi  ng 


and  Schoolmasters.  87 

the  parts  of  speech,  then  lakes  the  various  sorts 
of  verbs, and  follows  with  the  adverbs, participles, 
and  so  forth.  There  is  a  set  of  verses  on  the 
irregular  nouns,  and  a  second  headed  Versus 
differentiates  or  synonyms  ;  and  some  of  the 
illustrations  are  given  in  Italian.  The  section 
on  diphthongs  forms  an  Appendix. 

I  merely  adduce  a  cursory  notice  of  Guarini 
to  keep  the  student  in  mind  of  the  collateral 
progress  of  this  class  of  learning  abroad,  while 
our  own  men  were  developing  it  among  us  with 
the  occasional  assistance  of  foreigners.  Perhaps 
I  may  just  copy  out  the  following  small  speci- 
men, where  the  glosses  are  in  the  writer's  ver 
nacular  : — 

"  Largior  ris  per  donare  e  p  essere  donate 

Experior  ris  per  puare  e  per  essere  puato 

Ueneror  ris  per  honorare  e  p  essere  honorato 

Moior  ris  per  aspectare  e  p  eere  aspectato 

Os^ulor  ris  per  basare  e  p  essere  basiato.  " 

In  connection  with  Magdalen  School,  we  see 
in  the  account-book  of  John  Dome,  Oxford 
bookseller,  for  1520,  the  class  and  range  of 
literature  which  a  dealer  in  those  days  found 
saleable.  Among  the  strictly  grammatical  books 


88  Schools,  School-Books, 

occur  the  A. B.C.  and  the  Boys'  Primer;  the 
productions  with  which  \ve  are  already  fami- 
liar, of  Whittinton,  Stanbridge,  Erasmus,  Cicero, 
Terence,  ane  Lucian,  interspersed  with  some 
of  the  Fathers,  service-books  of  the  Church, 
classical  authors  of  a  less  popular  type,  such 
as  Lucan,  Cornelius  Nepos,  and  Pomponius 
Mela;  and  more  or  less  abstruse  treatises  on 
logic,  rhetoric,  and  theology.  On  the  other 
hand,  we  have  prognostications  in  English, 
almanacs,  Robin  Hood,  the  Nutbrown  Maid, 
the  Squire  of  Low  Degree,  Sir  Isumbras,  Robert 
the  Devil,  and  ballads.  There  are,  besides,  the 
Sermon  of  the  Boy-Bishop,  the  Book  of  Cookery, 
the  Book  of  Carving,  and  an  Anglo-French 
vocabulary. 

But  I  do  not  enter  into  these  details.  It  was 
merely  my  intention  to  peep  in  at  the  shop,  and 
see  what  a  bookseller  at  one  of  the  Universities 
nearly  four  centuries  ago  had  in  the  way  of 
school-literature.  Perhaps  next  to  the  A.B.C' 
and  the  primers,  the  educational  works  of 
Erasmus  were  in  greatest  demand. 

This  old  ledger  has  a  sort  of  living  value, 
inasmuch  as  it  carries  us  back  with  ,it  to  the 


and  Schoolmasters.  89 

very  Oxford  ot  the  first  race  of  teachers  and 
grammarians,  about  whom  I  write.  All  of 
them,  except  perchance  Anniquil,  must  have 
known  Dome  and  had  transactions  with  him  ; 
and  here  is  his  ledger,  upon  which  the  eyes  of 
some  of  them  may  have  rested,  still  preserved, 
with  its  record  of  stock  in  hand— new  copies 
damp  from  the  printer,  or  remainders  of  former 
purchases,  now  scarcely  extant,  or,  if  so,  shorn 
of  their  coeval  glory  by  the  schoolboy's  thumb 
or  the  binder's  knife. 


00     ) 


VI. 


Auxiliary  books  —  Vulyaria  of  Terence  —  His  Comedies 
printed  in  1497  —  Some  of  them  popular  in  schools  — 
HORACE  — CICERO— His  Offices  and  Old  Age  translated 
by  Whitlinton  —  VIRGIL  —  OVID— Specimens  of  Whit- 
tinton's  Cicero  —  The  school  Cato — Notices  of  other 
works  designed  or  employed  for  educational  purposes. 

1.  THERE  is  a  class  of  books  which,  while 
they  were  not  strictly  intended  for  use  in  the 
preparation  of  the  ordinary  course  of  lessons, 
were  most  undoubtedly  brought  into  constant 
requisition,  at  least  by  the  higher  forms  or 
divisions,  as  aids  to  a  familiarity  with  the  dead 
languages,  and  eventually  those  of  the  Con- 
tinent. 

The  earliest  and  one  of  the  most  influential 
of  these  was  the  Vulgar  la  of  Terence.  As  far 
back  as  the  reign  of  Edward  IV.,  I  find  it 
annexed  to  the  Compendium  Grammatics  o* 


Schools  and  Schoolmasters.        91 

Johannes  Anniquil,  printed  at  Oxford  about 
1483;  and  at  least  three  other  editions  of  it 
exist.  It  is  on  the  interlinear  plan,  as  the  fol- 
lowing extract  will  serve  to  indicate  :  — 

"  Here  must  I  abyde  nllone  this  ij  dayes 
33tbuu§  f)tc  mcmenbu  e§t  tmfji  §olu 

Though  I  may  not  touch  it  yet  I  may  see 

@t  nott  tangenbt  copta  e  tnbenbi  ta  erit. 

The  dede  selfe  scheweth  or  telleth 
9te§  t£§a  tnbtcaL 

If  I  had  tarayed  a  lytill  while  I  hadd  not  found 
hym  at  home 

ce3§a§»e  en  bomt  no  off 


No  one-  will  be  astonished  or  displeased  to 
hear  that  Terence  soon  acquired  great  popu- 
larity among  school-boys  and  a  permanent  rank 
as-  a  text-book.  In  1497  Pynson  printed  all 
the  Comedies,  and  a  few  years  later  selections 
were  given  with  marginal  glosses.  In  1533 
the  celebrated  Nicholas  Udall,  many  years 
before  he  gave  to  the  world  the  admirable 
comedy  of  Ralph  Roister  Doister,  edited  por- 
tions of  the  Latin  poet  with  an  English  trans- 
lation, doubtless  for  the  benefit  of  the  scholars 


92  Schools,  School-Books, 

at  Eton;  it  was  a  volume  which  long  continued 
a  favourite,  and  passed  through  several  impres- 
sions, both  during  the  author's  life  and  after  his 
death. 

In  1598,  a  century  subsequent  to  the  appear- 
ance of  the  first,  came  a  second  complete  ver- 
sion of  the  Comedies,  from  the  pen  of  Richard 
Bernard  of  Axholme  in  Lincolnshire,  and  being 
more  contemporary  in  its  language  and  treat- 
ment, drove  out  of  fashion  the  old  Pynson. 
Bernard's  remained  in  demand  till  the  middle 
of  the  next  century,  and  concurrently  with  it 
renderings  of  separate  plays  occasionally  pre- 
sented themselves. 

In  1588  the  Andria  was  brought  out  by 
Maurice  Kyffin  with  marginal  notes,  his  pro- 
fessed object  being  twofold,  namely,  to  further 
the  attainment  of  Latin  by  novices  and  the 
recovery  of  it  by  such  as  had  forgotten  the  lan^ 
guage.  In  1627,  Thomas  Newman, 'apparently 
one  of  the  masters  of  St.  Paul's,  prepared  for 
the  special  behoof  of  students  generally  the 
Eunuch  and  the  Andria,  dedicating  his  per- 
formance to  the  scholars  of  Paul's,  to  whom 
he  wished  increase  in  grace  and  learning.  The 


and  Schoolmasters.  93 

treatment  of  these  two  favourite  dramas  was  in- 
fluenced, as  we  are  expressly  informed,  by  the 
idea  and  ambition  of  adapting  them  for  thea- 
trical exhibition  at  a  school. 

But  they  were,  at  the  same  time,  considered 
by  our  forefathers  particularly  well  suited  as 
vehicles  for  instruction,  as  well  perhaps  as  for 
amusement.  In  the  early  days  of  Charles  L? 
Dr.Webbe  brought  out  an  edition  of  them,  both 
on  a  novel  principle  of  his  own,  which  he  had 
taken  the  precaution  to  patent.  The  safeguard 
proved  superfluous,  however, for  the  book  never 
went  into  a  second  edition. 

For  the  sake  of  grouping  conveniently  to- 
gether the  entire  Anglo-Terentian  literature,  I 
shall  conclude  with  a  mention  of  the  version, 
executed  in  1667  by  Charles  Hoole  of  six  of 
the  plays.  It  is  in  English  and  Latin,  "  for  the 
use  of  young  scholars,"  and  was  most  probably 
done  with  a  special  view  to  Hoole's  own  school, 
which  at  this  time  was  •"  near  Lothbury  Garden, 
London.  "  He  kept  for  a  long  series  of  years 
one  of  the  leading  proprietary  establishments 
in  the  metropolis  :  but  he  was  originally  the 


94  Schoofe,  S 

principal  of  one  at  Rotlierham  in  Yorfesfeire* 
We  last  hear  of  him  as  carrying  on  the  same 
business  in  Godsmith's  Alley.  This  was  in 
1675.  His  career  as  a  teacher  must  have  ex- 
tended over  some  thirty  years. 

II.  Leaving  Terence,  we  may  pass  to  Vir- 
gil; whose  Bucolics  were  published  in  1512 
with  a  dull  Latin  commentary,  illustrating  the 
construction  of  the  verse  and  other  critical 
points. 

No  ancient  English  edition  of  Horace  exists, 
either  in  the  original  language  or  a  translation. 
But  Whittinton  admitted  selections  from  him 
into  his  Syntax.  In  1534  he  translated  Cicero's 
Offices  for  the  use  of  schools,  printing  the  Latin 
and  English  face  to  face;  and  the  treatise  of 
Old  Age  closely  followed. 

In  these  attempts  to  draw  the  classics  into 
use  for  educational  purposes,  the  fine  musical 
numbers  of  the  ancient  poet  and  the  noble 
composition  of  the  writer  in  prose  offer  a 
powerful  contrast  to  the  barbarous  jargon  and 
dissonant  pedantry  of  the  scholiast  and  editor, 
whose  Latin  exposition  certainly  tended  in  no 


and  Schoolmasters.  95 

way  to  assist  the  learner,  either  from  the  point 
of  view  of  an  interpreter  or  a  model.  Fort  it 
must  have  been,  in  the  absence  of  some  one 
to  expound  the  exposition,  fully  as  puzzling  to 
pupils  as  the  most  difficult  passages  of  the 
J Ionian  poets,  while  it  was  eminently  mischie- 
vous in  its  influence  on  the  formation  of  a  Latin 
style. 

The  teacher  in  all  ages  has  been  a  prosaic 
and  unimaginative  being ;  and  if  the  one  who 
directed  the  studies  of  Virgil  himself  had  glossed 
the  works  of  those  authors  who  lived  before  the 
Augustan  era,  he  would  have  problably  trans- 
mitted to  us  a  labour  as  dry  and  unfruitful  as 
those  which  make  part  of  the  reference  library 
of  English  boys  in  the  olden  time. 

Except  in  a  prose  translation,  which  bears  no 
mark  of  having  been  intended  for  boys,  the 
JEneid,  was  not  introduced  among  us  for  a  very 
long  period  subsequently  to  the  revival  of 
learning,  nor  were  the  Georgics.  A  selection 
from  Ovid's  Ar i  of  Love  appeared  in  1513; 
perhaps  the  whole  was  deemed  too  fescennine 
for  the  juvenile  peruser. 

I  shall  add  Ca3sar,  whose  Commentaries  were 


96  Schools,  School-Books, 

printed  in  1530,  not  because  this  invaluable 
book  was  intended  as  a  medium  for  instruction 
in  the  seminaries  and  colleges,  but.  just  by  the 
way,  as  the  only  other  classic  rendered  into  our 
tongue  so  early,  on  account  of  its  probable 
interest  in  relation  to  France  and  to  military 
science,  and,  once  more,  on  account  of  the 
person  who  translated  it,  John  Tiptoft,  Earl  of 
Worcester,  an  accomplished  nobleman,  who 
filled  at  one  time  a  professorial  chair  in  the 
University  of  Padua. 

The  Ca3sar,  in  fact,  occupies  an  analogous 
position  to  the  English  editions  of  Cicero  and 
the  prose  paraphase  of  the  Mneid  published 
by  Caxton,  and  was  intended  for  the  use  of 
those  few  cultivated  minds  which  had  imbibed 
in  Italy  and  France  a  taste  for  elegant  and 
refined  studies. 

III.  I  have  before  me  a  copy  of  Whittin- 
ton's  versions  of  the  Offices  and  Old  Age  of 
Cicero,  and  I  may  take  the  opportunity  to  pre- 
sent to  the  reader  a  specimen  of  his  perform- 
ance. It  is  taken  from  the  first  book  of  the 
Office*  :— 


and  Schoolmasters. 


97 


De  Officiis  Servandis  in  eos  qui 
intulerunt  nobis  iniuriam. 
Svnt  autern  qucedam  officia 
elirun  aduersus  eos  seruadaa 
quibus  iniuriam  acceperis, 
Kst  eriiin  ulciscendi  &  \>n- 
niendi  modus.  Atq;  baud  srio 
;ui  sitis  sit  eum,  qui  laees- 
sierit,  iniurise  siue  premiere. 
ut  &  ipse  ne  quid  tale 
posthac  committal,  &  c.'eteri 
si  tit  at  iniuriam  tardiores. 


Of  oflyces  to  be  ol)serued 
agnvne  suche  as  haue  done 
vs  \v rouge, 

There  be  also  certayne 
ofl'yces  to  be  kepte  agayne 
suche  /  of  whom  a  ma  hath 
taken  wrong.  Fore  there  is  a 
mane i'  of  reuengynge  and 
punysshyng,  and  I  can  not  tell 
whether  it  be  sufl'yri»-nt  for 
hym  that  hath  done  w rouge  to 
be  sory  of  his  wrong*1  ;m<i 
that  he  ofl'ende  no  more  so  al- 
ter that.  Also  other  shall  be 
the  more  lothe  to  do  wronge. 

There  are  few  English  renderings  of  ancient 
literuture  which  it  is  possible  to  regard  as  com- 
pletely satisfactory;  and  it  must  be  recollected, 
on  the  behalf  of  Whittinton,  that  he  was  among 
the  pioneers  in  this  laborious  field.  Let  me 
conclude  with  a  sample  of  his  essay  on  the  De 
Senectute  —  a.  clief  d'ceuvre,  which  it  is  a  sin  to 
read  in  any  idiom  but  its  own. 


Sequitur  tertia  vituperatio 
sencctutis,  quod  earn  carere 
dicunt  voluptatibus.  O  |>ra-- 
clarum  munus  a^tatis,  siqui- 
dem  id  aufert  nobis,  quod  est 
in  adolescentiavitiosissimum. 
Accipite  suim  optirni  adoles- 
centes,  ueterem  orationem 
Archyt;o  Tarentini,  magni  in 
prim  is,  et  praeclari  viri.  MU;!I 
milii  tradila  est  cum  rsscm 
adolescens  Tarenti  cum  Q. 
Maximo.  Xulla  cai)ilalioi'e 
peste  fjuam  eorporisuoluptate 
hoiniiiibus  dicebat  a  natura 
data.  .  .  . 


The  thyrde  accusacion  of 
okle  age  foloweth.  By  cause  it 
must  forg(j  pleasures.  0  that 
i  xcellent  benefyle  of  oldeage  : 
yf  it  take  away  from  vs  lhat 
thynge/  whiche  in  youlh  is 
moost  vicious.  Thei-fore  ye 
gentyll  yonge  men  hearc  the 
o!d(j  sentence  ot  Archytas  a 
Tai'i-ntyne  /  a  great  and  a  fa- 
mous man  amonges  all  other 
/  which  was  taught  vnto  me 
whan  I  was  a  yonge  man  in  Hit- 
citye  of  Tarenlu  with  Quintrs 
Maximus.  llesayd  that  then- 
was  not  a  moi'e  deedly  poyson 
gyuen  to  man  by  nature  /  than 
sensuall  pleasure  ot  body. .  . 


98  Schools,  School-Books, 

These  two  passages  afford  a  fair  idea  of  the 
capability  of  Whittinton  for  his  task,  and  of  the 
means  which  the  English  student  of  those  days 
enjoyed  for  profiting  by  the  lessons  of  antiquity 
and  holding  intercourse  with  the  greatest  minds 
of  former  ages,  at  the  same  time  that  it  led  the 
way  to  the  purification  of  the  current  Latinity 
from  mediaeval  barbarism  and  the  heresies  of 
the  Dutch  school. 

To  be  hypercritical  in  the  judgment  of  these 
experimental,  and  of  course  imperfect,  attempts 
to  impart  to  the  educational  system  in  th's 
island  a  better  tone  and  to  place  it  on  an 
improved  footing,  would  be  ungracious  and 
improper.  The  introduction  of  the  R.oman 
writers  in  pose  and  verse  into  our  schools  and 
universities  was  an  important  step  in  the  right 
direction, and tendedto counteract  the  monastic 
temper  and  element  in  our  method  of  training. 

V.  Outside  the  pale  of  the  schoolroom,  but 
still  clearly  designed  for  learners,  one  finds  such 
literary  fossils  as  the  Book  ofCato,  the  Cato  for 
Boys,  the  Eclogues  of  Mantuan,  of  which  Bale 
speaks  as  popular  in  his  day,  and  which  Holo- 


and  Schoolmasters.  99 

f  ernes  mentions  in  Love's  Labours  Lost;  various 
abridgments  of  the  Colloquia  of  Erasmus  and 
Jus  Little  Book  of  Good  Manners  for  Children 
(another  monument  of  the  industry  anp  scholar- 
ship of  Whittinton) ;  and,  lastly,  such  elementary 
guides  to  mythology  and  history  as  Lydgate's 
Interpretation  of  the  Natures  of  Gods  and  God- 
desses, and  the  Chronicle  of  all  Ute  Kings'  Names 
that  have  reigned  in  England,  1530.  With 
these  I  should  perhaps  couple  the  Latin  *Esop 
of  1502,  with  a  commentary  in  the  same  lan- 
guage, and  the  later  edition  of  which,  in  1535, 
includes  the  Fables  of  Poggius. 

Considering  the  state  of  our  population  and 
the  restrictions  on  learning,  it  cannot  be  said 
that  the  market  for  works  of  reference  and 
instruction  was  poorly  supplied,  and  the  remains 
which  have  descended  to  us  of  books  pub- 
lished in  England,  many  wholly  or  partly  in  that 
language,  for  the  use  of  the  young,  certainly 
bespeak  and  establish  an  eager  and  wide  de- 
mand on  the  part  of  our  public  and  private 
seminaries  in  the  fifteenth  and  following  cen- 
turies. 

I  take  occasion  to  shew  the  beneficial  share 


100      Schools  and  Schoolmasters. 

which  Erasmus  had  in  the  promotion  of  culture 
in  England  in  various  ways,  and  the  interest 
which  he  evinced  in  the  establishment  and 
success  of  St.  Paul's  School.  Not  only  were 
his  own  works  translated  into  English,  and 
received  with  favour  among  the  book-lovers  cf 
that  age,  but  he  ventured  so  far  as  to  turn 
several  of  the  Dialogues  of  Lucian  into  Latin, 
encouraged  by  the  proficiency  which  he  had 
acquired  during  his  fir&t  visit  to  England,  in  the 
original  language,  added  perhaps  to  the  satis- 
factory result  of  his  later  experiments  as  a 
teacher  of  Greek  at  Cambridge. 


(    101     ) 


VII. 

Influence  of  Erasmus  and  Sir  Thomas  More— Visits  ot 
the  former  to  this  country—His  friendship  with  Dean 
Colet— Establishment  of  various  schools  in  England- 
Foundation  of  St.  Paul's  by  Colet— Statutes— Books 
used  in  the  school— Narrow  lines— Notice  of  the  old 
Cathedral  School. 

I.  WE  must  not  attempt,  in  fact,  to  consider 
the  educational  question  in  early  England  wit- 
hout studying  very  sedulously  the  Lives  of  Eras- 
mus and  Colet  by  Samuel  Knight.  The  influence 
of  Erasmus  on  our  scholastic  literature  I  believe 
to  have  been  very  great  indeed.  He  came  over 
to  this  country,  it  appears,  in  1497,  and  spent  a 
good  deal  of  time  at  Oxford,  where  he  acquired 
a  knowledge  of  Greek.  "  While  Erasmus  re- 
mained at  Oxford,  "  says  his  biographer,  u  he 
became  very  intimate  with  all  those  who  were 
of  any  Note  for  Learning  ;  accounting  them 


102  Schools,  School-Books, 

always  his  best  friends,  by  whom  he  was  most 
profited  in  his  studies.  And  as  he  owns  M. 
Colet  did  first  engage  him  in  the  Study  of 
Theology,  so  it  is  also  well  known  that  he 
embraced  the  favourable  Opportunity  he  now 
had  of  learning  the  Greek  Tongue,  under  the 
most  Skilful  Masters  (viz.)  William  Grocyn, 
Thomas  Linacre,  and  William  Latimer.  Grocyn 
is  said  by  one  who  lived  about  this  Time  to 
have  been  the  first  Professor,  or Publick  Teacher 
of  Greek  in  Oxford  to  a  full  Assembly  of 
Young  Students.  " 

Knight  affords  an  interesting  and  tolerably 
copious  account  of  Linacre,  as  well  as  of 
Grocyn  ;  and  in  connection  with  the  former  he 
relates  an  anecdote,  on  the  authority  of  Erasmus 
about  Bernard  Andreas,  tutor  to  Prince  Arthur, 
son  of  Henry  VII.  But  I  shall  not  enter  into 
these  matters,  as  Linacre,  though  a  great  pro- 
moter of  Greek  authors,  scarcely  conies  within 
my  plan.  Yet  I  may  mention  that  among  the 
friends  whom  the  learned  Hollander  made  here 
was  Cuthbert  Tunstall,  afterwards  Bishop  of 
Durham,  and  author  of  the  first  book  on  arith- 
metic published  in  this  country,  and  Richard 


and  Schoolmasters.  103 

Pace,  who  succeeded  Colet  in  the  Deanery  of 
St.  Paul's. 

There  is,  however,  a  passage  which  I  may  be 
suffered  to  transcribe,  where,  speaking  of  the 
time  when  Erasmus  was  contemplating  a  de- 
parture homeward.  Knight  observes:-— 

"  Before  Erasmus  left  England,  he  laid  the 
plan  of  his  useful  Tract  de  conscribendis  (pistoli*, 
for  the  Service,  and  at  the  Suggestion  of  his 
noble  Pupil  the  Lord  William  Montjoy,  who 
had  complained  that  there  were  no  good  Rules, 
or  Examples  of  that  kind,  to  which  he  could 
conform  himself.  Erasmus  took  the  hint  very 
kindly,  and  making  his  just  Reflections,  npon 
the  emptiness  of  Franciscus  Niger,  and  Marius 
Phalelfus,*  whose  Rooks  upon  that  Argument 
were  read  in  the  common  Schools,  he  seems 
resolv'd  at  his  first  leisure  to  give  a  New  Essay 
of  that  kind ;  and  accordingly  upon  his  first 
return  to  Paris  he  fell  upon  it,  and  finished  it 
within  twenty  Days.  " 

So  we  see  that,  prior  to  the  visit  of  Erasmus 
to  us  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  there 

*  Knight  refers  to  the  Epistoloe  ot  Franciscus  Philelphus, 
printed  at  Milan  in  1471. 


-104          Schools,  School-Books, 

were  already  polite  letter-writers  current,  and 
current,  too,  as  school-books.  Erasmus  came 
to  the  conclusion  that  he  had  done  his  own 
work  too  hastily,  and  the  appearance  of  nn 
edition  of  it  in  England  about  thirty  years  later, 
and  likewise  of  a  counterfeit,  induced  him  to  re- 
vise the  undertaking,  which  was  finally  published 
at  Basle  in  1545  in  a  volume  with  other  analo- 
gous tracts  by  various  writers. 

A  story  which  Knight  relates  about  his  au- 
thors literary  enterprise  in  the  epistolary  line 
is  too  amusing  to  be  overlooked: — 

"In  that  Essay  of  the  way  of  writing  Epistles, 
Erasmus  had  put  in  two  sorts  of  Declamations, 
one  in  the  praise,  the  other  in  dispraise,  of 
Matrimony,  and  asking  his  young  Pupil  IA 
Montjoy  how  he  lik'd  that  of  the  first  sort. 
*  Oh  sir,'  says  he, '  I  like  it  so  well,  that  you  have 
made  me  resolve  to  marry  quickly.'  Ay  !'  but 
says  Erasmus,  k  you  have  read  only  one  side, 
stay  and  read  the  other.'  'No,'  replies  IA 
Montjoy.  'that  side  pleases  me  ;  take  you  the 
other!'7"  The  subject  is  an  obvious  one  for 
humorous  controversy ;  but  there  is  a  similar 
idea  in  Rabelais,  who  makes  his  two  chief  cha- 


and    Schoolmasters.  105 

racters  debate  the  advantages  and  drawbacks 
of  wedlock. 

Altogether,  Erasmus  must  have  done  very 
much  toward  the  advancement  of  a  taste  for 
Hellenic  culture  in  our  country,  and  his  biogra- 
pher apprises  us  that  he  exhorted  the  physicians 
of  his  time  to  study  that  language  as  more  neces- 
sary to  their  profession  than  to  any  other.  Yet 
the  knowledge  of  the  tongue  w^as  very  sparingly 
diffused  in  England  at  and  long  after  that  time; 
and  Turner,  in  the  dedication  of  his  Herbal 
to  Queen  Elizabeth  in  1568,  complains  of  the 
ignorance  of  the  apothecaries  of  his  day  even  of 
the  Latin  names  of  the  herbs  which  they  em- 
ployed in  their  pharmacopoeia.  The  illustrious 
and  erudite  Dutchman  did,  doubtless,  what  he 
could,  and  made  several  of  the  classics  more 
familiar  and  intelligible  by  new  editions,  with 
some  of  which  he  connected  the  names  of  Eng- 
lish scholars  and  prelates  ;  but  the  time  had 
not  arrived  for  any  general  movement. 

II.  Knight,  in  his  Life  of  Dean  Golet,  enume- 
rates several  of  the  schools  which  were  founded 
shortly  before  the  Reformation  "  This  noble 


106          Schools,  School-Books, 

impulse  of  Christian  charity,"  says  he,  "in  the 
founding  of  grammar  schools,  was  one  of  the 
providential  ways  and  means  for  bringing  about 
the  blessed  reformation  ;  and  it  is  therefore 
observable,  that,  within  thirty  years  before  it, 
there  were  more  grammar  schools  erected  and 
endowed  in  England  than  had  been  in  three 
bundled  years  preceding  :  one  at  Chichester  by 
Dr.  Edward  Scory,  bishop  of  that  see,  who  left 
a  farther  benefaction  to  it  by  his  last  will,  dated 
8th  December,  1502  :  another  at  Manchester  by 
Hugh  Oldham,  Bishop  of  Exeter,  who  died 
1519  :  another  at  Binton  in  Somersetshire,  by 
Dr.  Fitzjames,  Bishop  of  London,  and  his  bro- 
ther, Sir  John  Fitzjames,  lord  chief  justice  of 
England  :  a  fourth  at  Girencester  in  Gloucester- 
shire, by  Thomas  Ruthall,  Bishop  of  Durham  :  a 
fifth  at  Roulston  in  Staffordshire,  by  Dr.  Robert 
Sherbone,  bishop  of  St.  David's,  predecessor  to 
Dr.  Colet  in  the  deanery  of  St.  Paul's  :  a  sixth 
at  Kingston-upon-Hull,  by  John  Alcock,  Rishop 
of  Ely  :  a  seventh  at  Sutton  Colfield  in  War- 
wickshire, by  Dr.  Simon  Harm  an  (alias  Veysey), 
bishop  of  Exeter  :  an  eighth  at  Farn worth  in 
Lancashire,  by  Dr.  William  Smith,  Bishop  of 


and  Schoolmasters.  107 

Lincoln,  born  there:  a .  ninth  at  Appleby  in 
Westmoreland,  by  Stephen  Langton,  bishop  of 
Winchester:  a  tenth  at  Ipswich  in  Suffolk  by 
cardinal  Wolsey  :  another  at  Wymbourn  in  Dor- 
setshire, by  Margaret,  countess  of  Richmond  : 
another  at  Wolverhampton  in  Staffordshire,  by 
Sir  Stephen  Jennings,  mayor  of  London  :  an- 
other at  Macclesfield,  by  Sir  John  Percival, 
mayor  of  London  :  as  also  another  by  the  lady 
Thomasine  his  wife  at  St.  Mary  Wike  in  Devon- 
shire, were  she  was  born  :  and  another  at  Wal- 
tharnstow  in  Essex  by  George  Monnox,  mayor 
of  London,  1515:  besides  several  other  schools 
in  other  parts  of  the  kingdom.  " 

Knight  concludes  by  saying  that  "the  piety 
and  charity  of  Protestants  ran  so  fast  in  this 
channel,  that  in  the  next  age  there  wanted 
rather  a  regulation  of  grammar  schools  than  an 
increase  of  them." 

George  Lily,  son  of  the  grammarian  and 
schoolmaster,  and  canon  of  St.  Paul's,  refers 
doubtless  to  these  benefactions  when,  in  his 
Chronicle,  he  speaks  of  the  encouragement  of 
learning  by  the  princes  and  nobility  of  England, 
and  goes  on  to  say  that  their  good  example  was 


108  Schools,  School-Books, 

followed  by  Dr.  John  Colet,  .  .  .  "  who  about 
this  time  (1510)  erected  a  public  school  in 
London  of  an  elegant  structure,  and  endowed 
it  with  a  large  estate,  for  teaching  gratis  the 
sons  of  his  fellow-citizens  for  ever." 

The  foundation  was  for  one  hundred  and 
seventy-three  scholars— a  number  selected  in 
remembrance  of  the  miracle  of  the  fishes. 

III.  Colet  drew  up,  or  had  drawn  up,  for  the 
regulation  of  his  new  school  the  subjoined 
Rules  and  .Orders,  to  be  read  to  the  parents 
before  their  children  were  admitted,  and  to  be 
accepted  by  them  : — 

"  If  youre  chylde  can  rede  and  wryte  Latyn 
and  Englyshe  suffycyently,  so  that  he  be  able  to 
rede  and  wryte  his  own  lessons,  thenheshalbe 
admitted  into  the  schole  for  a  scholar. 

"  If  youre  chylde,  after  reasonable  reason 
proved,  be  founde  her  unapte  and  unable  to 
lernynge,  than  ye  warned  therof  shal  take  hym 
awaye,  thatheoccupyenotoure  rowme  in  vayne. 

"  If  he  be  apt  to  lerne,  ye  shal  be  coritente 
that  he  continue  here  tyl  he  have  competent 
literature. 


and  Schoolmasters.  109 

w-lt'  lie  absente  vi  dayes,  and  in  that  mean 
seesonyeshew  not  cause  reasonable,  (resonable 
cause  is  only  sekenes)  than  his  rowme  to  be 
voyde,  without  he  be  admitted  agayne,  and  pay 
iiijd. 

"Also  after  cause  shewed,  if  he  contenewe  to 
absente  tyl  the  weke  of  aclmyssion  in  the  next 
quarter,  and  then  ye  shew  not  the  contenuance 
of  the  sekenes,  then  his  rowme  to  be.  voyde, 
and  he  none  of  the  schole  tyl  he  be  admytted 
agayne,  and  pave  iiijd.  for  wry  ting  his  name. 

"Also  if  he  fall  thryse  into  absence,  he  shal 
be  admytted  no  more. 

''Your  chylde  shal,  on  Chyldermas  daye, 
wayte  vpon  the  boy  byshop  at  Powles,  and  offer 
there. 

''Also  ye  shal  fynde  him  waxe  in  winter. 

"Also  ye  shal  fynde  him  convenyentbokes  to 
his  lernynge. 

"If  the  offerer  be  content  wiih  these  articles, 
than  let  his  childe  be  admytted." 

The  founder  of  St.  Paul's,  in  his  statutes, 
1518,  prescribed  what  Latin  authors  he  would 
have  read  in  the  school.  He  recites,  in  the 
first  place,  the  Latin  version  by  Erasmus  of 


110          Schools,  School-Books, 

his  Precepts  and  the  Copia  Verborum  of  the 
same  Dutch  scholar.  He  then  proceeds  to 
enumerate  some  of  the  early  Christian  writers, 
whose  piety  was  superior  to  their  Latinity, 
Lact-intius,  Prudentius,  and  others.  But  while 
he  does  not  say  that  Virgil,  Cicero,  Sallust,  and 
Terence  are  to  be  used,  he  utterly  eschews  and 
forbids  such  classics  as  Juvenal  and  Persius, 
wrhom  he  evidently  indicates  when  he  speaks  of 
"Laten  adulterate  which  ignorant,  blinde  foles 
brought  into  this  worlde,  and  with  the  same 
hath  dystained  and  poysonyd  the  olde  Laten 
speche  and  the  veray  Romayne  tongue  which  in 
the  tyrne  of  Tully  and  Salust,  and  Virgiil,  and 
Terence,  was  usid"— which  is  so  far  reasonable 
from  his  standard  ;  but  he  adds  incongruously 
enough  :  "whiche  also  sainte  Jerome,  andsainte 
Ambrose,  and  saint  Austen,  and  many  holy 
doctors  lernid  in  theyre  tymes."  Whereby  we 
arc  left  at  liberty  to  infer  that  these  holy  doctors 
were  on  a  par  writh  Virgil  and  Sallust,  Cicero 
and  Terence. 

What  sort  of  Latin  would  be  current  now  if 
all  the  great  writers  had  perished,  and  we  had 
had  only  the  works  of  the  Fathers  as  text-books? 


and  Schoolmasters.  111 

We  all  have  pretty  similar  beginnings,  as  the 
prima  stamina  of  a  man  and  any  other  verte- 
brate are  said  to  be  undistinguishable  to  a 
certain  point ;  and  as  St.  Jerome  learned  his 
accidence  of  Donatus,  so  Virgil  got  his  rudi- 
ments. But  much  as  we  owe  to  St.  Jerome,  it 
was  a  mischievous  error  to  adopt  him  or  such 
authors  as  Lactantius  inapublic  school,  where 
the  real  object  was  to  instil  knowledge  of  the 
Latin  language  in  its  integrity  and  purity.  It 
was  a  mischievous  error,  and  it  was,  at  the  same 
time,  a  perfectly  natural  one.  We  are  not  to 
blame  Colet  and  his  coadjutors  for  having  been 
so  narrow  and  so  biassed  ;  but  it  must  always 
be  a  matter  of  regret  and  surprise  that  St  Paul's, 
and  all  our  other  training  institutions,  public 
and  proprietary,  should,  down  to  thepresentera, 
have  been  under  the  sway  and  management  of 
men  whose  intellectual  vision  was  as  contracted 
and  oblique  as  that  of  Colet,  without  the  excuse 
which  it  is  so  easy  to  find  for  him. 

The  rules  for  St.  Paul's,  which  are  set  out  at 
large  by  Knight,  were  unquestionably  of  a  very 
austere  character,  though  in  harmony  with  the 
feeling  of  the  time;  and  Knight,  in  his  Life  Of 


112          Schools,   School-Books, 

the  founder,  ascribes  the  apparent  harshness  of 
the  discipline  enforced  under  his  direction  to 
the  laudable  motive  of  preparing  boys  for  the 
troubles  of  theworld,  and  inuring  them  to  hard- 
ship. But  Erasmus  was  notorUhe  side  of  the  mar- 
tinets.For  he  explicitly  condemns  an  undeserving 
strictness  ofdiscipline,which  made  no  allowance 
for  the  difference  in  the  tempers  of  boys;  and 
another  point  with  which  he  quarrelled  was  the 
horse-in-a-mill  system  and  the  way  of  learning 
by  rote,  which  had  begum  to  find  favour  both 
in  his  own  country  and  with  us. 

Itis  vain,  however,  to  expect  that  there  should 
have  been  many  converts  to  such  a  man's  opi- 
nions on  educational  questions  at  that  period. 
Even  in  the  small  circle  of  his  English  friends 
and  correspondents  there  was  a  wide  diversity 
of  sentiment.  Sir  Thomas  More  might  agree 
with  him  mainly;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  Colet 
was  clerical  in  his  leaning  and  Spartan  in  his 
notions  of  scholastic  life;  and  he  deemed  it  good, 
as  I  have  above  said,  to  work  on  the  tenderness 
of  youth  before  it  acquired  corruption  or  pre- 
judice, that  ''  the  new  wine  of  Christ  might  be 
put  into  new  bottles." 


and  Schoolmasters.  113 

IV.  There  can  be  no  desire  to  deprive  Golet 
of  any  portion  of  the  honour  which  we  owe  to 
him  for  promoting  the  cause  of  education  in 
London;  but  it  would  at  the  same  time  be  an 
error  to  conclude  that  the  good  Dean  was  the 
first  who  established  a  school  in  the  metropolis. 
The  foundation  which  he  established  about  1510 
consolidated  and  centralised  the  system,  which 
down  to  that  time  had  been  weakly  and  loosely 
organised.  Hear  what  Knight  says  :— 

"  The  state  of  schools  in  London  before  Dean 
Golet's  foundation  was  to  this  effect :  the  Chan- 
cellor of  Paul's  (as  in  all  the  ancient  cathedral 
churches)  was  master  of  the  schools  (magister 
scholamim),  having  the  direction  and  govern- 
ment of  literature,  not  only  within  the  church, 
but  within  the  whole  city,  so  that  all  the  masters 
and  teachers  of  grammar  depended  on  him,  and 
were  subject  to  him ;  particularly  he  was  to  find 
a  fit  master  for  the  school  of  St.  Paul,  and  pre- 
sent him  to  the  Dean  and  Chapter,  and  then  to 
give  him  possession,  and  at  his  own  cost  and 
charges  to  repair  the  houses  and  buildings  be- 
longing to  the  school.  This  master  of  the  gram- 
mar school  was  to  be  a  sober,  honest  man,  of 

H 


114  Schools,  School-Books, 

good  and  laudable  learning He  was  in  all 

intents  the  true  vice-chancellor  of  the  church, 
and  was  sometimes  so  called;  and  this  was  the 
original  meaning  of  chancellors  and  vice-chan- 
cellors in  the  two  universities  or  great  schools  of 
the  kingdom." 

The  same  writer  traces  back  St.  Paul's  school 
to  Henry  the  First's  reign,  when  the  Bishop  of 
London  granted  the  schoolmaster  for  the  time 
being  a  residence  in  the  bell-tower,  and  be- 
stowed on  him  the  custody  of  the  library  of  the 
church.  A  successor  of  this  person  had  the 
monopoly  of  teaching  school  in  London  con- 
ferred on  him  by  the  Bishop  of  Winchester, 
saving  the  rights  only  of  the  schoolmasters  of 
St.  Mary-le-Bow  and  St.  Martin-le-Grand. 

The  old  cathedral  school,  which  that  of  Golet 
doubtless  gradually  extinguished, lay  to  the  south 
of  his,  and  appears  curiously  enough  not  to  have 
occupied  the  basement,  but  to  have  been,  as  wre 
should  say,  on  the  first  floor,  four  shops  being 
beneath  it.  It  was  close  to  Watling  Street.  A 
passsage  in  the  Monumenta  Franciscana  shews 
that  the  site  of  Golet's  original  school,  which 
perished  in  the  Great  Fire,  had  been  in  the 


and  Schoolmasters.  115 

possession  of  bookbinders,  and  in  theimmediate 
neighbourhood  was  the  sign  of  the  Black  Eagle, 
which,  as  we  learn  from  documentary  testimony, 
was  still  there  in  1550. 

At  the  epoch  to  which  I  am  referring,  the 
vocation  of  a  bookbinder  was,  I  think,  invari- 
ably joined  with  that  of  a  printer,  and  I  appre- 
hend that  these  shops  formed  part  of  a  printing 
establishment. 

The  Black  Eagle  was  an  emporium  for  the 
sale  of  books,  and  it  is  to  be  recollected  that 
in  early  days,  where  the  typographical  part  was 
done  in  some  more  or  less  unfrequented  quarter 
of  the  city,  it  was  a  common  practice  to  have 
thevolumeon  sale  in  amore  public  thoroughfare. 

St.  Paul's  Churchyard,  in  the  days  of  Golet 
and  in  the  infancy  of  his  valuable  endowment, 
wras  beyond  question  not  only  a  place  of  great 
resort,  but  a  favourite  seat  of  the  booksellers. 
For  in  the  imprint  to  an  edition  of  the  Hours  of 
the  Virgin,  printed  at  Paris,  the  copies  are  said 
to  be  on  sale  at  London  "  apud  bibliopolas  in 
cimiterio  sancti  Pauli  1514;  "  and  of  this  fact 
I  could  readily  bring  forward  numerous  other 
evidences. 


116       Schools  and  Schoolmasters. 

Besides  the  vendors  of  literature,  however, 
the  site  soon  became  one  of  the  places  of  settle- 
ment of  the  teachers  of  languages,  to  whom  the 
immediate  proximity  of  St.  Paul's  served  as  an 
useful  introduction  and  advertisement ;  and  in 
the  time  of  Elizabeth  a  French  school  was 
established  here,  for  the  benefit  of  the  general 
public,  of  course,  but  more  especially,  doubtless, 
with  a  view  to  such  Paulines  as  might  desire  an 
extension  of  their  studies. 


(    117    ) 


VIII. 

Thomas  Linacre  prepares  his  Rudiments  of  Latin  Grammar 
for  the  use  of  the  Princess  Mary  (1522)— Probably  the 
earliest  digest  of  the  kind— Cardinal  Wolsey's  edition 
of  Lily's  Grammar  for  the  use  of  Ipswich  School  (1529) 
—Inquiry  into  the  priority  of  the  Ipswich  and  St.  Paul's 
Grammars— First  National  Primer  (1540)  -Lily's  Short 
Introduction  of  Grammar  (1548)—  Its  re-issue  by  Queen 
Elizabeth  (1566-7)— Some  account  of  its  contents— Its 
failure. 

I.  THOMAS  LINACRE,  physician  to  four  suc- 
cessive sovereigns  and  tutor  to  the  Princess 
Mary,  is  understood  to  have  prepared  for  the 
service  of  his  august  pupil  certain  Rudiments  of 
Grammar,  doubtless  in  Latin,  at  the  same  time 
that  Giles  Du  Wes  or  Dewes  wrote  for  her  his 
Introductory  to  the  French  language.  The 
biographer  of  Dean  Golet  informs  his  readers 
that  the  production  of  Linacre  was  translated 
into  Latin  by  George  Buchanan  for  Gilbert, 


118  Schools,  School-Books, 

Earl  of  Cassilis,  whose  studies  he  directed;  but 
the  book  as  printed  is  in  that  language,  and 
bears  no  indication  of  a  second  hand  in  it. 
The  undertaking,  however,  was  deemed  by 
Queen  Catherine  too  obscure,  and  Ludovicus 
Vives  was  accordingly  engaged  to  draw  up 
something  more  simple  and  intelligible,  which 
was  the  origin  of  his  little  book  De  ratione 
studii  puerilis,  where,  from  delicacy,  he  made  a 
point  of  commending  the  labours  of  Linacre 
and  the  abridgment  of  the  Rudiments  by 
Erasmus. 

The  volume,  edited  by  Linacre  about  1522, 
appears,  anyhow,  to  be  entitled  to  rank  as  the 
earliest  effort  in  the  way  of  a  grammatical  digest; 
and,  apart  from  its  special  destination,  it  was 
calculated  to  supply  a  want,  and  to  find  patrons 
beyond  the  range  of  the  court. 

Except  its  utilisation  by  Buchanan  for  Lord 
Cassilis",  we  hear  little  or  nothing  of  it,  never- 
theless, after  its  original  publication  by  the  royal 
printer.  Perhaps  itdid  not  compete  successfully 
with  the  editions  of  Lily,  as  they  received  from 
time  to  time  improvements  at  the  hands  of 
professionnal  experts,  and  united  within  certain 


and  Schoolmasters.  119 

limits  the  advantages  of  consolidation  and  com- 
pleteness. The  prestige  of  Lily  had  grown  con- 
siderable, and  in  the  case  of  a  technical  book  it 
has  always  been  difficult  or  impossible  for  an 
amateur  to  hold  his  ground  against  a  specialist. 

II.  Allowing  for  the  possibility  of  editions  of 
which  we  have  no  present  knowledge  having 
formerly  existed,  if  they  do  not  yet  do  so,  it  may 
be  that  Dean  Golet  caused  some  text-book  to 
be  prepared  for  the  use  of  the  scholars  at  St. 
Paul's ;  and  I  shall  by  and  by  adduce  some  evi- 
dence in  favour  of  such  an  hypothesis.  But,  at 
any  rate,  in  1529  Cardinal  Wolsey  gave  his 
sanction,  and  wrote  a  preface,  to  an  impression 
of  Lily's  Rudiments  with  certain  alterations, 
more  especially  for  the  use  of  his  school  at 
Ipswich,  but  also,  as  the  terms  of  the  title  state, 
for  the  benefit  of  all  other  similar  institutions  in 
the  country. 

The  Cardinal's  preface  is  dated  August  1,1528. 
It  is  followed  by  the  Docendi  Methodus,  the 
Rules,  the  Articles  of  Faith,  Precepts  of  Living, 
Apostles'  Creed,  Decalogue,  &c. ;  and  the  rest  of 
the  book  is  occupied  by  the  Introduction  of  the 


120          Schools,  School-Books, 

Eight  Parts  of  Speech  and  the  Rudiments  of 
Grammar. 

Of  this  collection  there  was  no  exact  reprint, 
but  portions  of  the  contents  appear  in  the  Ant- 
werp impressions  of  1535  and  1536,  designed 
for  the  English  learners  in  Flanders;  and  Lily's 
Rudiments,  with  and  without  the  other  acces- 
sories, were  periodically  republished  even  later 
than  the  so-called  Oxford  Grammar  of  1709. 

Now,  as  St.  Paul's  was  the  more  ancient  foun- 
dation, it  is  allowable,  at  all  events,  to  suspect 
that  the  book  issued  nominally  for  the  Ipswich 
school  \vas  borrowed  by  the  Cardinal  or  the 
person  employed  by  him  from  one  drawn  up  by 
Lily  in  his  lifetime  for  Colet.  St.  Paul's  had 
been  established  in  1510;  the  Dean  survived  till 
1519  ;  and  surely  so  many  years  would  hardly 
have  elapsed  without  witnessing  the  preparation 
of  some  Pauline  text-book  on  lines  parallel  to 
those  of  the  Ipswich  one  of  1529,  more  particu- 
larly when  we  see  that  in  the  Preface  to  his 
1534  Rudiments  he  speaks  of  the  "  new  school 
of  Paul's,"  and  that  in  1518  Erasmus  had  exe- 
cuted a  Latin  metrical  version  of  the  Lord's 
Prayer  and  Precepts  of  Good  Living  for  the 


and  Schoolmasters.  121 

school  under  the  title  of  Chris tiani  hominis 
Institutum. 

The  short  paraphrase  of  the  Lord's  Prayer  in 
English  by  Colet,  which  I  have  found  at  present 
only  in  an  edition  of  the  Salisbury  Primer,  1532, 
was  made  for  his  own  scholars,  and  had,  of 
course,  been  in  existence  prior  to  1519;  so  that 
we  find  ourselves  groping  in  the  dark  a  little  in 
the  inquiry  which  deals  with  such  a  fugitive  and 
perishable  description  of  literature,  and  have 
to  do  the  best  that  we  can  with  the  fragmen- 
tary relics  wrhich  survive  or  have  been  so  far 
recovered. 

The  Coleti  ceditio,  &c.,  of  1534  had  much  in 
common  with  Wolsey's  book;  but  the  Dean  of 
St.  Paul's  claims  the  honour  of  having  adapted 
some  portions  of  the  Delectus  to  what  he  con- 
sidered to  be  the  special  requirements  of  his 
own  institution.  For  he  says  in  the  Proem  : — 

"Al  be  it  many  have  wryten,  and  have  made 
certayne  introducyons  into  Latyn  speche,  called 
Donates  and  Accidens,  in  Latyn  tongue  and  in 
Englysshe,  in  suche  plenty  that  it  shoulde  Seme 
to  suffyse ;  yet  never  the  lesse,  for  the  love  and 
zele  that  I  have  to  the  newe  schole  of  Powles, 


122  Schools,  School-Books, 

and  to  the  children  of  the  same,  somwhat  have 
I  also  compyled  of  the  mater  ;  and  of  the  viii. 
partes  of  grammer  have  made  this  lytell  boke  ; 
...  in  whiche  lytell  warke  if  any  new  thynges 
be  of  me,  it  is  alonely  that  I  have  put  these 
partes  in  a  more  clere  ordre,  and  have  made 
them  a  lytell  more  easy  to  yonge  wyttes,  than 
(me  thynketh)  they  were  before." 

The  passage  here  quoted  may  be  taken  to 
supply  a  sort  of  testimony  to  the  original  publi- 
cation of  the  Dean's  alleged  recension  of  the 
accepted  text  of  Lily's  Introduction  (including 
the  Rudiments]  not  very  long,  if  at  all,  posterior 
to  1510,  as  in  1534  St.  Paul's  had  been  founded 
a  quarter  of  a  century.  The  modification  of  the 
Grammar  for  Pauline  use  was  almost  unques- 
tionably due  to  Lily,  and  merely  the  Proem  the 
Dean's  own. 

III.  The  St.  Paul's  book  has,  on  the  whole, 
a  strong  claim  to  precedence  over  that  of  1529. 
But  under  any  circumstances,  in  or  before  the 
last-named  date,  we  possessed  an  uniform  Gram- 
mar in  Ueu  of  the  archaic  sectional  series  of 
Stanbridge  and  Whittinton. 


and    Schoolmasters.  123 

But  even  that  of  Wolsey  went  no  farther  than 
to  recommend  itself  to  general  acceptance.  It 
had  no  official  character.  Nor  was  it  till  late 
in  the  protracted  reign  of  Henry  VIII,  that  a 
general  Primer  for  the  whole  country  was  pre- 
pared and  published.  In  1540  a  volume  in  two 
parts  appeared  under  the  royal  authory,  with- 
out any  clue  to  the  editor,  reducing  the  text  to 
a  more  convenient  method  and  compass.  This 
book  is  anonymous;  but  Thomas  Hayne  says 
in  1640  that  it  was  done  by  sundry  learned  men^ 
among  whom  he  had  heard  that  one  was  Dr. 
Leonard  Cox,  tutor  to  Prince  Edward.  Another 
probable  coadjutor  was  John  Palsgrave, author 
of  the  Eclair  cissement. 

The  Address  to  the  Reader  before  the  first 
part  proceeded,  no  doubt,  from  the  compiler's 
pen,  and  contains  an  energetic  eulogy  of  Prince 
Edward,  to  whom  "  the  tender  babes  of  England  " 
are  exhorted  to  look  up  as  a  model  and  example. 
This  portion  includes  the  Parts  of  Speech  and 
other  rudiments  in  English,  while  the  second 
part  contains  a  digested  recension  of  the  Latin 
series  under  the  title  of  A  Compendious  Institu- 
tion of  the  whole  Grammar. 


124          Schools,  School-Books, 

This  bipartite  manual  formed,  of  course,  an 
improvement  on  the  system  formely  in  vogue, 
which  must  have  been  very  puzzling  to  boys. 
But  it  seems  very  doubtful  indeed  if  this  Primer 
of  1540  was  practically  recognised,  or  whether 
the  Government  took  any  measures  to  enforce 
what  purported  to  have  been  done  under  its 
immediate  sanction. 

Whoever  they  were  who  arranged  for  publica- 
tion the  Primer  had  probably  a  hand  in  the 
Alphabetum  Latino- Any  licum  of  1543,  which  is 
here  incidentally  noticed,  and  which  is  more 
than  it  professes  to  be.  For  it  comprises,  in 
addition  to  a  series  of  alphabets,  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  the  Salutation  of  the  Virgin,  the  Com- 
mandments, the  Apostles'  Creed,  and  a  few 
prayers,  in  Latin  and  English.  It  was,  in  fact, 
a  supplement  to  the  Primer  itself. 

IV.  In  January  1547,  Henry  was  succeeded 
by  his  son,  and  the  change  is  marked  by  the 
substitution  of  A  Short  Introduction  of  Grammar 
generally  to  be  used,  in  two  parts,  the  English 
followed  by  the  Latin,  for  the  original  Primer  of 
1540.  A  complaint  appears  to  have  arisen  at 


and  Schoolmasters.  125 

the  same  time  that  the  large  book  was  incon- 
venient for  beginners ;  and  we  are  told  that  Fox 
the  martyrologist  was  commissioned  to  prepare 
Tables  of  Grammar  for  the  use,  probably,  of  the 
lower  forms  in  schools.  But  we  know  nothing 
farther  of  them;  and  the  Introduction,  to  which 
they  were  designed  as  a  companion,  was  not 
reprinted  more  than  once  in  Edward's  life.  Nor 
is  there  any  vestige  of  it  till  we  arrive  quite  at 
the  close  of  the  rule  of  Mary,  when  the  Paris 
press  produced  an  edition  under  some  circum- 
stances not  at  present  explainable,yet,  of  course, 
with  the  peculiarity  of  being  entirely  unofficial. 
So  that  when  we  sum  up,  it  amounts  to  this, 
that  the  first  and  second  types  of  the  so-named 
universal  Grammar,  as  settled  in  1540  and  1548 
respectively,  reached  four  impressions  in  seven- 
teen years,  not  including  that  of  1557,  wrhichlies 
^utside  the  series. 

Making  due  allowance  for  the  far  scantier 
population  and  the  momentous  difference  of 
social  conditions,  this  remains  a  strange  pheno- 
menon, if  we  reflect  that,  in  addition  to  the 
public  and  private  schools  previously  in  exist- 
ence, the  Government  of  Edward  had  planted 


126          Schools,  School-Books, 

throughout  the  country  the  endowments  of 
which  Christ's  Hospital  is  the  most  familiar 
type. 

But  even  when  there  was  a  change  in  the 
Administration  in  1558,  and  the  authority  of 
Elizabeth  was  established  in  Church  and  State, 
the  interest  in  educational  development  led  to 
no  revival  of  the  Introduction,  and,  unless  all 
intervening  copies  have  perished,  there  was  a 
clear  lapse  of  ten  years  before  the  new  Pro. 
testant  regime  took  steps  to  re-issue  the  book. 

This  was  in  1567.  In  the  Preface  very  just 
stress  is  laid  on  the  mischief  proceeding  from 
what  is  termed  "  a  diversity  of  Grammars  "  and 
from  different  schoolmasters  adopting  different 
methods  and  books.  The  proclamation  attached 
expresses  at  large  the  objects  and  advantages 
of  the  publication,  while  it  certainly  seems  to 
claim  for  the  Queen's  father  more  credit  than, 
looking  at  the  circumstances  he  deserved.  For 
the  Piimer  of  1540  had  been  preceded  by  those 
of  Lin  acre  and  Wolsey,  just  as  the  Short  Intro. 
duction  of  1548  and  1567  was,  in  the  main,  a 
reproduction  of  Henry's  book.  But  the  same  un- 
qualified encomium  is  pronounced  on  Henry  by 


and  Schoolmasters.  127 

John  Palsgrave,the  celebrated  lexicographer  and 
teacher  of  languages,  in  the  prolix  and  fulsome 
dedication  to  his  English  Acolastus,  1540,  which 
must  have  been  written  and  in  type  when  the 
copiesofthePrimerhad  scarcely  left  the  binder's 
hands.  Palsgrave  does  not  intimate  here  any 
personal  concern  in  the  undertaking. 

The  Preface  of  1567  is  followed  by  the  Latin 
letters,  the  vowels  and  consonants,  and  the 
Greek  letters;  after  which  comes  a  prayer, 
u  0  Almighty  God  and  merciful  Father,"  which 
is  still  retained  at  some  of  our  public  schools. 
The  Introduction  of  the  Eight  Parts  of  Speech 
constitutes  the  body  and  remainder  of  the  Eng- 
lish part. 

There  are  six  forms  of  grace  before  meat,  and 
six  others  of  grace  after  meat. 

The  Latin  section  opens  with  the  Greek 
alphabet,  and  proceeds  to  the  parts  of  grammar, 
concluding  with  Erasmus's  De  Ratione.  But,  as 
I  have  stated  more  than  once,  this  later  text-book 
does  not  substantially  vary  from  that  of  1548. 
The  royal  proclamation  granted  the  monopoly 
of  printing  to  Reginald  Wolfe,  and  forbad  the 
employment  of  any  other  Grammar  throughout 


128  Schools,  School-Books, 

her  Highness's  dominions.  The  document  de- 
clares that  Henry  VIII,  in  the  midst  of  weighty 
affairs  belonging  to  his  office,  had  not  forgotten 
nor  neglected  the  tender  youth  of  his  realm, 
but  had,  from  a  fervent  zeal  for  the  godly  bring- 
ing up  of  the  said  youth,  and  a  special  desire 
that  they  might  learn  the  Latin  tongue  more 
easily,instituted  a  new  uniform  Grammar ;  which 
was  so  far  really  the  case,  inasmuch  as  the  1540 
volume  was  the  first  official  one,  and  also  at  the 
date  of  its  promulgation  the  most  complete  and 
satisfactory. 

V.  But  in  examining  this  general  Grammar 
for  all  England  and  the  dominions  annexed,  one 
at  once  misses  the  graphic  and  amusing  illus- 
trations which  present  themselves  in  many  of 
the  earlier  books  which  we  have  been  studying. 
The  examples,  instead  of  being  drawn  from  the 
occupations  and  various  phases  of  everyday  life, 
are  almost  without  exception  purely  technical 
and  commonplace.  There  is  no  allusion  which 
one  would  welcome  as  casting  an  incidental 
light  on  contemporary  history  or  manners.  It 
is  mostly  a  dead  level.  The  learned  men  have 


and  Schoolmasters.  129 

done  this  !  It  makes  us  cheerful,  amid  the 
habitual  dearth  of  something  to  leaven  the 
text,  to  stumble  upon  a  few  of  the  little  touches 
in  the  older  books  retained  as  an  exception, 
such  as  :  "  Yivo  in  Anglia.  Veni  per  Galliam 
in  Italiam/'  or  ."  Vixit  Londini  :  Studuit  Oxo- 
niae.  " 

How  differently  Herman  in  his  Vulgaria, 
1519,  handled  his  subject,  and  his  pages  were 
intended  for  schoolboys  and  students  too ! 

The  frequency  with  which  the  Primer  was 
henceforth  reprinted,  contrasted  with  the  very 
limited  call  for  copies  from  1540  to  1566,  seems 
to  furnish  an  indication  that  the  book  and  the 
system  were  at  last  gaining  ground,  and  begin- 
ning to  meet  with  more  general  acceptance. 

But  the  irreconcilable  diversity  of  opinions, 
which  has  always  prevailed,  respecting  etymo- 
logy, syntax,  pronunciation,  and  other  cardi- 
nal points,  militated  against  the  success  on  any 
very  grand  scale  of  an  official  Primer;  and  the 
Tudors,  arbitrary  and  absolute  as  they  were  in 
all  questions  of  political  significance,  were  not 
prompted  by  the  feeling  of  the  time  to  resort 
in  such  a  case  as  this  to  penal  and  peremptory 

i 


130          Schools,  School-Books, 

legislation.  The  eighteenth  century  saw  Lily's 
Grammar  still  more  or  less  in  vogue  under  the 
name  of  the  original  author,  not  to  speak  of  the 
obligations  of  its  successors  to  it ;  but  the  Tudor 
book,  constructed  in  some  measure  out  of  it? 
and  ushered  into  existence  under  the  most  aus- 
picious and  powerful  patronage,  sank  after  a 
not  very  robust  or  influential  life  of  six  decades 
(1540-1600)  into  complete  oblivion. 

Our  great  Elizabeth  has  been  dead  near  three 
hundred  years,  and  no  genuine  popular  demand 
for  mental  improvement  has  yet  come  from  the 
people.  In  the  sixteenth  century— in  the  Queen's 
time  and  in  her  father's— the  spirit  which  pro- 
moted education  was  based  either  on  political 
or  commercial  motives. 

The  universities  and  schools  reared  a  suc- 
cession of  preceptors  who  deserted  the  monastic 
traditions,  and  to  whom  learning  was  a  mere 
vocation.  One  large  class  of  the  English  com- 
munity sought  to  acquire  the  accomplishments 
which  might  be  serviceable  in  the  Government 
and  at  court;  another  limited  its  ambition  to 
those  which  would  enable  them  to  prosper  in 
trade  or  in  the  wars. 


and  Schoolmasters.  131 

V.  A  class  of  school-book  destined  for  special 
use,  besides  those  enumerated  in  another  place, 
presents  itself  in  the  shape  of  grammatical  works 
dedicated  by  their  authors,  not  to  particular 
institutions,  but  to  particular  localities  or  parts 
of  the  Empire.  Edward  Buries,  who  kept  school 
at  East  Acton  in  Cromwell's  day,  accommodated 
his  plan  to  the  requirements  of  adults,  but  at 
the  same  time  announces  that  it  is  printed  for 
the  advantage  of  the  schools  in  the  counties 
of  Middlesex  and  Hertford,  which  strikes  us  as 
at  once  a  curious  limitation  and  a  sanguine  pro- 
posal, unless  Buries  was  a  Hertfordshire  man. 
This  was  in  1652. 

A  later  writer  was  more  catholic  and  ambitious 
in  his  flight;  for  in  1712  John  Brightland  pro- 
jected a  Grammar  of  the  English  tongue  "  for 
the  use  of  the  schools  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland,  " — a  fact  more  particularly  noticeable, 
because  it  is  the  first  hint  of  any  scheme  com- 
prehending the  Emerald  Isle.  I  allude  elsewhere 
to  the  early  Accidence  drawn  up  for  Scotland 
by  Alexander  Hume;  and  in  1647  the  interests 
of  the  rising  generation  in  Wales  were  specially 
considered  by  the  unnamed  introducer  of  a  sim- 


132          Schools,  School-Books, 

plified  Latin  Primer  in  usum  juventiitis  Cambro- 
Britannicoe,  which  aimed  at  a  monopoly  of  the 
Principality  without  prej  udice  to  persons  beyond 
the  border. 

Besides  the  Grammar  itself,  certain  Manuals 
purported  to  be,  not  for  general  educational 
purposes,  but  for  a  given  school,  and  even  for 
a  specified  class  in  it.  Such  was  the  English 
Introduction  to  the  Latin  Tongue  for  the  use  of 
the  lower  forms  in  Westminster  School;  and  at 
Magdalen  School,  Oxford,  they  had,  at  least 
as  far  back  as  1623,  a  small  text-book  on  the 
declensions  and  conjugations.  I  take  another 
opportunity  to  speak  of  a  Latin  phrase-book 
designed  for  Manchester  in  1660,  and  of  the 
printed  examination  papers,  exhibiting  the  lines 
laid  down  at  Merchant  Taylors'  about  the  same 
time.  In  a  few  cases  a  more  elaborate  compila- 
tion was  framed,  at  all  events  originally, with  the 
same  restricted  scope,  like  the  Rom  an  Antiquities 
of  Prideaux,  in  1614,  for  Abingdon. 

Perhaps,  however,  the  most  conspicuous  ex- 
ample of  this  localisation  was  the  Outlines  of 
Rhetoric  for  St.  Paul's,  of  which  we  meet  with 
a  third  edition  in  1659;  and  which  must  have 


and  Schoolmasters.  133 

been  in  connection  with  some  new  and  temporary 
effort  to  enlarge  the  range  of  studies  during  the 
Protectorate,  partly  under  the  stimulus  of  the 
promoters  of  the  famous  Musceum  Minervce  and 
the  commencing  taste  for  a  more  complex  plat- 
form. For  such  subjects  do  not  seem  to  have 
made  part  of  the  ordinary  course  of  training 
anywhere  since  the  medieval  period,  when  the 
Aristotelian  system  was  paramount  at  our  Uni- 
versities ;  although,  at  the  same  time,  among 
more  advanced  students  philosophical  treatises 
never  ceased  to  possess  interest  and  attract 
perusers.  But  the  relevance  of  the  handbook 
for  St.  Paul's  lies  in  its  professed  destination  for 
the  young. 

It  is  questionable  whether,  outside  the  Uni- 
versities and  the  establishments  affiliated  upon 
them,  the  sciences  were  acquirable  as  part  of 
the  normal  routine.  At  Oxford,  in  the  reign  of 
Henry  VIII.,  they  taught  what  was  then  termed 
Judicial  Astronomy, which  was  a  mere  burlesque 
on  the  true  study  of  the  planetary  bodies;  and 
Logic  was  on  the  list  of  accomplishments  within 
the  reach  of  boys,  who  were  sent  up  either  to 
college  or  to  school ;  for  in  A  Hundred  Merry 


134       Schools  and  Schoolmasters. 

Tales,  1526,  the  son  of  the  rich  franklin  comes 
back  home  for  the  holidays,  and  declares,  as  the 
fruit  of  the  time  and  money  expended  on  his 
education  at  Oxford  school,  whither  his  indul- 
gent father  had  sent  him  for  two  or  three  years, 
his  conversance  with  subtleties  and  ability  to 
prove  the  two  chickens  on  the  supper-table  to 
be  sophistically  three. 


I    135    ) 


IX. 


Merchant  Taylors'  School  founded  in  1561  —  Its  limited 
scope  and  stationary  condition  during  two  centuries  and 
a  half-  The  writer's  recollections  of  it  from  1842  to  1850 
— "William  Dugard  and  his  troubles. 

I.  I  C!\NNOT  enter  very  well,  in  a  general  view 
of  the  subject,  into  the  history  of  all  the  civic 
foundations  which  rose  up  one  by  one  subse- 
quently to  St.  Paul's,  such  as  the  City  of  London 
School,  the  Mercers'  and  the  Skinners',  beyond 
the  incidental  notices  which  I  have  taken  occa- 
sion to  introduce  of  such  institutions,  as  well 
as  of  the  system  of  public  grammar  schools  en- 
dowed by  Edward  VI.  But  I  may  be  allowed 
to  speak  of  one  with  which  I  enjoyed  personal 
associations  between  the  years  1842  and  1850, 
and  to  mention  that  in  the  third  chapter  of  his 
Autobiography  Leigh  Hunt  sheds  some  interest- 
ing light  on  the  condition  of  Christ's  Hospital 


136          Schools,  School-Books, 

when  Lamb,  Coleridge,  and  himself  were  there 
in  the  last  years  of  the  last  century. 

Christ's  Hospital  has  produced  some  very 
eminent  men,  but  whether  by  virtue  of  its  system 
or  in  spite  of  it,  I  hardly  venture  to  say.  The 
biographer  of  the  author  of  Elia  tells  us  what 
books  his  distinguished  friend  read  at  school ; 
how  little  he  learned,  Lamb  himself  seems  to 
suggest  in  that  paper  on  "  The  Old  and  the 
New  Schoolmaster.  " 

The  origin  of  Merchant  Taylors'  School  is 
thus  described  by  Wilson  :-— 

"Towards  the  close  of  the  year  1560, or  early 
in  the  following  spring,  the  Merchant  Taylors' 
Company  conceived  the  laudable  design  of 
founding  a  grammar  school;  and  part  of  the 
manor  of  the  Rose,  in  the  parish  of  St.  Lawrence- 
Pountney  (a  mansion  which  had  successively 
belonged  to  the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  the 
Marquis  of  Exeter,  and  the  Earls  of  Sussex), 
seeming  eligible  for  the  purpose,  Mr.  Richard 
Hills,  a  leading  member  of  the  court,  generously 
contributed  the  sum  of  five  hundred  pounds 
towards  the  purchase  of  it;  but  the  institution 
was  not  thoroughly  organised  till  the  24th  Sep- 


and  Schoolmasters.  137 

tember  1561,  on  which  day  the  statutes  were 
framed  and  a  schoolmaster  chosen.  " 

With  the  statutes  I  have  no  farther  concern 
than  with  the  clause  which  directs  that  the  two 
hundred  and  fifty  scholars,  to  which  the  school 
was  limited,  wrere  "  to  be  taught  in  manner  & 
forme  as  is  afore  devised  &  appointed.  But 
first  see  that  they  can  the  catechisme  in  English 
or  Latyn,  &  that  every  of  the  said  two  hundred 
&  fifty  schollers  can  read  perfectly  &  write  com- 
petently, or  els  lett  them  not  be  admitted  in 
no  wise." 

It  is  rather  curious  that  the  hours  of  attendance 
were  originally  from  seven  till  eleven  A.M.  and 
from  one  till  five  P.M.,  and  that  in  winter  the  boys 
were  to  bring  no  candles  of  tallow,  but  candles 
of  wax.  This  was  following  the  statutes  of  Dean 
Colet.  Thrice  in  the  day  there  were  prayers ; 
but  instead  of  one  of  the  sixth  form  saying  them 
for  the  rest,  as  was  subsequently  customary,each 
boy  seems  at  first  to  have  prayed  for  himself. 

The  printed  form  usually  employed  was  brief 
enough,  and  not,  like  the  Manual  prepared  by 
Bishop  Ken  for  Winchester,  adapted  for  the  use 
of  t(  all  other  devout  Christians.  " 


138  Schools,  School-Books, 

The  staff'  consisted  at  the  outset  of  a  head- 
master and  three  ushers,  whose  united  emolu- 
ments were  forty  pounds  a  year,  and  the  first 
chief  teacher  of  the  school  was  Richard  Mul- 
caster.  It  appears  that  the  earliest  Probation- 
Day,  as  it  was  termed,  was  in  November  1564, 
when  Dean  Nowell  and  others  examined  the 
ushers  and  the  boys  with  a  very  gratifying  result. 
These  appositions  were  renewed  in  1565,  and 
probably  still  continue  from  year  to  year.  They 
commenced  in  1564  at  eight  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing, and  so  they  did  in  my  time.  The  practice 
of  visitation  by  the  Court  on  this  day  seems  to 
have  ceased  in  1606. 

Alderman  Sir  Thomas  White,  some  time  sub- 
sequently to  the  foundation  of  the  school  by 
the  Company,  augmented  the  endowment,  so  as 
to  enable  the  institution  to  develop  itself,  and 
enlarge  its  sphere  of  utility  in  connection  with 
Oxford  University  and  in  other  ways.  White 
was  a  member  of  the  Court  when  the  scheme 
was  adopted,  but  he  was  not,  strictly  speaking, 
as  he  has  been  usually  termed  and  considered, 
the  founder  of  Merchant  Taylors'. 

We  do  not  arrive,  meanwhile,  at  any  clear 


and  Schoolmasters.  139 

or  complete  notion  of  the  books  which  were 
used  at  the  school,  but  it  is  to  be  inferred  that 
Lily's  Grammar  was  the  Latin  text-book.  In  the 
rules  made  for  Probation-Day  in  1606-7,  I  find 
(Esop's  Fables  in  Greek,  Tally's  Epistles,  and 
the  Dialogues  of  Corderius  named  as  works  in 
which  the  boys  were  to  be  tested.  The  subjects 
taken  on  this  day  were  Greek,  Latin,  and  dicta- 
tion,writingbeingnecessarily included.  Neither 
Hebrew,  nor  arithmetic,  nor  the  mathematics 
are  enumerated;  there  are  the  six  forms,  but  no 
monitors  or  prompters. 

The  School's  Probation  presents  itself  for  the 
first  time  as  a  printed  production,  or  at  least  as 
something  compiled  in  book  form,  under  the 
date  of  1608.  It  is*  printed  entire  by  Wilson; 
but  he  does  not  state,  nor  do  I  know,  what  ori- 
ginal, whether  printed  or  not,  he  employed. 

II.  Probation-Day  still  continued  in  my  time 
to  be  an  important  event — a  sort  of  red-letter 
day  in  our  calendar.  The  hour  for  assembling 
was  eight  o'clock,  instead  of  nine;  it  had  been 
half-past  six  while  the  school  was  exclusively 
composed  of  residents  within  a~limited  radius; 


140  Schools,  School-Books, 

but  the  enlarged  time  was  a  sore  trial  in  the 
winter  where  one  had  to  travel  from  a  suburb, 
as  I  did  from  Old  Brompton.  They  supplied 
breakfast  at  the  place,  not  gratuitously,  but  at  a 
fixed  tariff.  It  would  not  have  been  much  for  a 
wealthy  Company  to  provide  an  entertainment 
once  or  twice  a  year  for  two  or  three  hundred 
lads  at  a  shilling  or  so  a  head ;  but  the  Merchant 
Taylors,  I  think,  have  always  been  notorious  for 
parsimony.  Very  little  was  accomplished  before 
the  meal,  and  after  its  completion  we  had  to 
set  to  work,  the  old  room  upstairs  being  as  ill- 
adapted  for  the  purpose  of  an  examination  as 
can  well  be  imagined,  the  boys  having  to  use 
the  forms  as  desks  and  to  kneel  in  front  of  them. 
We  were  a  very  short  distance  from  the  Middle 
Ages.  Matters  were  not  much  changed  since  the 
time  of  the  original  establishment  of  the  charity. 
Indeed,  it  appears  from  Dugard's  School's  Pro- 
bation, 1652,  that  in  the  seventeenth  century  the 
Company  paid  for  some  kind  of  collation  : — 

"  There  shall  be  paid  unto  the  Master  of  the 
School,  for  beer,  ale,  and  new  manchet-bread, 
with  a  dish  of  sweet  butter, which  hee  shall  have 
ready  in  the  morning,  with  two  fine  glasses  set 


and  Schoolmasters.  141 

upon  the  Table,  and  covered  with  two  fair  nap- 
kins, and  two  fine  trenchers,  with  a  knife  laid 
upon  each  trencher,  to  the  end  that  such  as 
please  may  take  part,  to  staie  their  stomachs  until 
the  end  of  the  examination.  .  .  ijs." 

The  number  of  boys  was  in  1652  compara- 
tively limited ;  but  of  course  without  a  revival 
of  the  ancient  miracle  two  shillings'  worth  of 
victuals  would  not  have  gone  far  in  allaying  the 
hunger  of  a  far  smaller  gathering,  and  this  allow- 
ance must  have  simply  been  for  such  as  had 
missed  their  meal  at  home,  or  desired  additional 
refreshment. 

The  old  examination  itself  presents  numerous 
points  of  curiosity,  as  we  look  at  it  through  the 
present  medium.  Considerable  stress  seems  to 
have  been  laid  on  dictation.  The  master  opened, 
on  the  sudden,  Cicero,  the  Greek  Testament, 
JEsop's  Fables  in  Creek,  and  read  a  passage, 
which  the  boys  of  a  particular  form  had  to 
take  down,  and  then  turn  into  some  other  lan- 
guage, or  into  verse,  or  make  verses  upon  it— 
a  pretty  piece  of  trifling,  much  like  the  nonsense- 
verses  which  we  used  to  have  to  compose  in  my 
day,  and  as  profitable. 


142          Schools,  School-Books, 

Some  of  the  English  sentences  to  be  turned 
into  Latin  are  odd  enough  :  "  Bacchus  and 
Apollo  send  for  Homer;  "  "  I  went  to  Colchester 
to  eat  oysters;  "  "  My  Uncle  went  to  Oxford  to 
buie  gloves;"  "The  Atheist  went  to  Amsterdam 
to  chuse  his  religion. "  Others  might  have  been 
autobiographical :  "Marie  was  my  sister,  she 
dwelt  at  London;  "  "  Elisabeth  was  my  Aunt, 
she  dwelt  at  York;"  "  Anna  was  my  Grand- 
mother, she  dwelt  at  Worcester.  " 

In  another  place,  under  Sententioe  Varietas, 
there  are  five-and-twenty  wrays  of  describing  in 
a  sentence  the  great  qualities  of  Cicero. 

Greek  was  certainly  studied  with  a  good  deal 
of  attention  here  in  the  early  time,  judging  from 
the  space  which  is  devoted  to  it  in  the  scheme 
of  Dugard,  in  whose  small  volume  the  questions 
and  theses  in  that  language  occupy  twenty  pages. 
Erasmus  had,  doubtless,  had  a  large  share  in 
popularising  amongus  the  cultivation  of  Hellenic 
grammar  and  letters. 

Even  when  the  present  writer  was  at  the  school, 
Hebrew  was  by  no  means  assiduously  or  scien- 
tifically followed,  nor  do  I  believe  that  on  the 
staff  of  masters  there  was  any  one  who  properly 


and  Schoolmasters.  143 

understood  the  language.  But  it  was  part  of 
the  programme,  and  the  late  Sir  Moses  Monte- 
fiore,  who  usually  attended  on  Speech  and  Prize 
Day,  was  the  annual  donor  of  a  Hebrew  medal. 

Speech -Day  at  Merchant  Taylors'  was  the  sole 
occasion  on  which  the  large  schoolroom  in  Suf- 
folk Lane  was  ever  honoured  by  the  presence 
of  the  fair  sex.  The  lower  end  of  the  room 
was  converted  into  an  extempore  stage,  and  the 
monitors  and  prompters  took  part  in  some  reci- 
tation, or  select  scene  from  the  Latin  or  Greek 
dramatists.  At  a  later  period  French  themes 
were  introduced. 

As  far  back  as  the  reign  of  Charles  I.,  the 
large  contribution  which  the  ladies  and  other 
friends  of  the  scholars  made  to  the  audience, 
and  their  imperfect  acquaintance  with  the  dead 
languages,  rendered  it  a  subject  of  regret  and 
complaint  that  the  entertainment  was  not  given 
in  the  vernacular,  and  the  writer  of  a  small 
volume  called  Ludus  Ludi  Litterarii,  1672,  pur- 
porting to  report  a  series  of  speeches  delivered 
at  various  breakings-up,  states  that  the  majority 
of  them  were  in  English  on  this  very  account.. 
As  early  as  the  time  of  Henry  VIII.,  the  prac- 


144  Schools,  School-Books^ 

tice  of  exhibiting  some  dramatic  performance  at 
the  close  of  the  term,  and  usually  at  Christmas, 
was  in  vogue;  but  these  spectacles  were,  it  is  to 
be  suspected,  almost  uniformly  in  the  original 
language  of  the  classic  author,  or  in  the  schol- 
astic Latin  of  the  period. 

A  feeling  in  favour  of  a  reform  in  these  ar- 
rangements had,  as  has  been  mentioned,  arisen 
when  Hawkins  wrote  for  the  free  school  at 
Hadieigh  in  Suffolk  his  play  entitled  Apollo 
Shroving,  1627,  where  one  of  the  characters 
desires  the  Prologue  to  speak  what  he  has  to  say 
in  honest  English,  for  all  their  sakes,  and  de- 
scribes the  predilection  for  employing  Latin  as 
more  appropriate  to  the  University. 

Occasionally,  instead  of  plays,  there  were  mu- 
sical entertainments;  and  the  custom  of  signal- 
ising the  termination  of  the  school-work  seems 
to  have  been  followed  by  the  private  academies. 

But  the  antipathy  to  change  and  the  tempta- 
tion to  a  display  of  erudition  have  always  proved 
too  strong  an  obstacle  to  improvement ;  and 
wrhen  the  writer  was  last  present  at  this  anni- 
versary, the  ancient  precedent  was  still  in  force, 
and  the  Court  of  the  Merchant  Taylors  and 


and    Schoolmasters.  145 

general  company  listened  in  respectful  silence 
to  interlocutions  or  monologues  as  mysterious 
to  them  as  the  Writing  on  the  Wall. 

III.  William  Dugard,  head-master  from  1646 
to  1660,  so  far  as  his  light  and  information  were 
capable  of  carrying  him,  did,  no  doubt,  good 
service  to  the  Company  and  institution  with 
which  he  was  during  so  many  years  associated. 
But,  on  the  ground  of  misconduct  and  negli- 
gence, his  employers  thought  proper,  on  the 
27th  December  1660,  to  discharge  him  from 
the  place  of  chief  schoolmaster,  giving  him, 
however,  till  the  following  Midsummer  to  find 
another  appointment. 

Dugard  states  in  An  humble  Remonstrance 
Presented  to  the  Right  Worshipfull  Company  of 
Merchant-Tailors,  Maii  15,  1661,  that  the  Com- 
pany assigned  no  cause  for  their  proceeding . 
buthe  says  at  the  same  time :  "  It  is  alleged  in 
your  Order,  That  many  Complaints  have  been 
frequently  from  time  to  time  made  to  the  Master 
and  Wardens  of  the  Company, and  to  the  Court, 
by  the  parents  and  friends  of  the  young  Scholars, 
of  the  neglect  of  the  chief-Master's  dulie  in  that 

K 


146          Schools,  School-Books, 

School,    and   of    the    breach  of  the   Companies 
Orders  and  Ordinances  thereof.  " 

To  this  Dugard  replies  that  he  had  never 
heard  of  any  complaints  in  all  the  seventeen 
years  he  had  filled  the  post,  and  he  declared 
his  readiness  to  submit  in  silence  if  any  parent 
could  prove  aught  against  him.  He  had  been 
in  the  profession,  he  said,  thirty-three  years, 
and  ^  in  all  places  wherever  I  came,  1  have  had 
ample  testimonials  of  my  faithfulness  and  dili- 
gence, and  my  scholars'  proficiency." 

The  writer  attributes  his  fall  to  the  presence 
among  the  members  of  the  Court  of  persons 
injustly  hostile  to  him,  who  had  represented 
that  the  school  was  suffering  from  his  adminis- 
tration, and  would  go  down  unless  some  timely 
remedy  was  adopted. 

But  Dugard  averred  that  the  decline  of  the 
school  and  the  shrinkage  of  its  numbers  were 
due  to  the  Company's  order  of  March  16,  1659, 
which  forbad  him  to  admit  any  scholar  who  had 
not  a  warrant  from  the  Master  and  Wardens,  and 
the  consequence  was  that  parents,  not  caring  to 
go  to  the  Court,  took  their  sons  elsewhere.  As 
many  as  sixty  boys  had  been  lost  in  this  way 


and  Schoolmasters.  147 

within  a  twelvemonth,  he  maintains.  ik  True  it 
is,"  he  pleads,  "that  an  hundred  years  ago,  when 
it  was  an  hard  matter  to  get  a  Scholar  to  read 
Greek,  there  was  such  an  Order  made,  that  no 
Scholar  should  be  taught  in  the  School,  unless 
first  admitted  by  the  Company.  But  afterward 
there  was  found  a  necessity  to  dispense  with 
that  Order,  and  so  it  was  with  my  Predecessors; 
which  I  can  prove  for  above  threescore  years 
bygone.  They  (and  my  self  too  from  them, 
untill  the  last  year)  had  such  an  indulgence  that 
did  not  limit  or  restrain  them  to  admit  quarterly- 
Scholars,  who  did  not  immediately  depend  on 
the  Charity  of  the  Company  :  and  the  Motto 
engraven  on  the  School  speaks  as  much;  Xulli 
proecludor,  Tibi  pateo." 

The  Remonstrance  did  not  please  the  Merchant 
Taylors,  and  in  a  second  document,  dated  June 
12,  1661,  Dugard  tried  to  soften  what  he  had 
said;  for  his  language,  it  must  be  allowed,  was 
rather  energetic,  considering  that  he  was  in  the 
hands  of  those  who  had  the  power  to  act  as 
they  judged  fit. 

Whatever  the  precise  result  was,  there  are  two 
or  three  curious  points  brought  out  in  the  course 


148  Schools,  School-Book*, 

of  the  head-master's  vindication,  and  one  can 
hardly  avoid  a  conclusion  that  the  main  cause  of 
the  discontent  of  the  Court  was  not  even  so  much 
the  application  of  a  portion  of  his  time  to  literary 
pursuits,  as  the  abuse  of  the  permission  to  set 
up  a  printing-press  by  employing  the  machinery, 
intended  only  for  the  production  of  school  text- 
books, for  political  publications  of  a  republican 
stamp.  This  fact  does  not  transpire  in  the  tract 
itself,  but  is  ascertained  from  the  imprints  to 
books;  and  moreover,  in  1650,  at  the  end  of 
a  periodical  publication,  he  had  announced 
himself  as  Printer  to  the  Council  of  State;  so 
that  altogether  the  Merchant  Taylors  might  be 
naturally  afraid  of  incurring  the  displeasure  of 
the  new  masters  of  England  by  retaining  the 
holder  of  opinions  hostile  to  the  Stuarts. 

He  had  sold  the  press  at  the  desire  of  the 
Company  for  £300  less  than  the  cost;  and  this 
was  by  no  means  the  full  extent  of  his  sacrifices 
and  misfortunes.  For  he  gives  his  principals 
to  understand  that  he  had  grown  lean  by  the 
observance  of  fast-days  in  accordance  with  their 
recent  order;  and,  moreover,  that  during  his 
nineteen  years'  term  of  office  he  had  lost  £800 


and  Schoolmasters.  i49 

by  unpaid  quarter  wages,  thus  making  it  seem 
probable  that  he  was  directly  responsible  for 
the  fees. 

Altogether,  nothing  worse  than  indiscretion, 
perhaps,  was  chargeable  to  Dugard.  "I  bless 
God  for  it,"  he  expressly  says,  "  I  know  the 
Divel  himself  cannot  justly  accuse  me  of  any 
notorious  or  scandalous  Grime." 

Probably  not;  but  there  are  seasons  when 
indiscretion  is  criminal,  and  besides  his  procla- 
mation of  his  appointment  at  the  time  to  the 
Commonwealth  as  their  official  printer,  in  1657 
there'camefrom  his  press  the  reply  of  Milton  to 
Salmasius,  an  anti-royalist  manifesto  not  calcu- 
lated to  be  palatable  to  the  restored  dynasty  or- 
to  the  civic  feeling,  and  certainly,  so  far  as  one 
can  form  a  judgment,  an  encroachment  on  the 
special  objects  and  raison  d'etre  of  Dugard's 
collateral  occupation. 


(    150 


Successors  of  Lily —  Thomas  Robertson  of  York— Cultivation 
of  the  living  languages  — Numerous  works  published  in 
England  upon  them  —  Their  various  uses — The  Vocabu- 
laries lor  travellers  and  merchants— Rival  authors  of 
('•nimmurs —  Different  text-books  employed  at  schools  — 
Milton's  Accidence  (1669)  —  Old  mode  of  advertising- 
private  establishments. 

I.  AFTER  the  death  of  Lily  his  work  was  carried 
on  and  developed  by  other  men,  who  gradually 
achieved  the  task  of  consolidating,  or  reducing 
into  a  more  compact  form,  the  rather  perplexing 
series  ot  elementary  treatises  edited  byWhittin- 
ton.  Among  these  followers  of  the  Master 
of  St.  Paul's  was  a  schoolmaster  at  Oxford,  the 
Thomas  Robertson  of  York  whom  I  had  lately 
occasion  to  name  in  connection  with  Ascensius, 
and  who  at  all  events  produced  in  1532  at  Basle 
an  edition  of  Lily's  Grammar  with  a  Preface  and 
Notes. 


Schools  and  Schoolmasters.       151 

Robertson  applauds,  in  his  dedication  to  Dr. 
Longlond,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  himself  a  man  of 
letters,  the  system  of  Lily,  and  testifies  to  the 
excellent  way  in  which  the  boys  at  Oxford 
prospered  under  his  educational  regimen.  But, 
nevertheless,  he  does  not  conceal  his  notion  and 
expectation  of  improving  on  his  master;  and 
indeed  there  is  no  doubt  that  we  have  here  the 
earliest  clear  approach  to  our  modern  grammar- 
book,  although  the  whole  is  in  Latin,  except 
certain  quotations  and  names  in  Greek,  as  he 
compares  the  practice  of  the  Greek  poets  with 
that  of  the  Romans,  much  as  Robert  Etienne 
a  little  later  pointed  out  the  conformity  of  the 
French  with  the  Greek.  Philological  parallels 
had  become  fashionable. 

In  his  section  on  Derivatives  Robertson  has 
some  matter,  as  to  which  the  modern  etymo- 
logist may  form  his  own  conclusions.  This  is  a 
specimen  : — 

"  Vox  uocis,  a  voco.  lucundus  a  iuuo. 

Lex  legis,  a  lego.  Junior  a  iuuenis. 

Rex  regis,  a  rego.  Mobilis  a  moueo. 

Sedes  a  sedeo.  Humanus  ab  homo, 

lumentum  a  iuuo.  Vomer  a  uomo. 

Fomes  a  foueo.  Pedor  a  pede." 


152          Schools,  School-Books, 

Of  the  miscellaneous  labourers  in  this  field 
Robertson  was  one  of  the  most  conspicuous; 
nor  did  his  name  and  work  die  with  him,  for 
his  tables  of  Irregular  Verbs  and  Nouns  were 
printed  with  Lily's  Rides  at  least  as  late  as  the 
reign  of  James  I. 

It  is  out  of  my  power  to  cross  the  boundary- 
line  of  conjecture  when  I  ofler  the  opinion  that 
the  Oxford  employment  of  Robertson  was  on 
the  old  Magdalen  staff. 

II.  But  there  was  no  lack  of  instruments  for 
carrying  out  the  scheme  of  education  in  Eng- 
land, whatever  the  imperfections  of  it  might  be. 
There  were,  besides  the  ordinary  pedagogue, 
whose  accomplishments  did  not,  perhaps,  ex- 
tend beyond  the  language  of  his  own  country, 
writing,  and  arithmetic,  professors  for  French, 
Italian,  and  Dutch,  and  men  whose  training 
at  college  qualified  them  more  or  less  to  give 
instruction  in  Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew.  The 
German,  Spanish,  and  Portuguese  do  not  seem 
to  have  been  much  cultivated  down  to  a 
comparatively  recent  date,  which  is  the  more 
extraordinary  since  our  intercourse  with  all 


and  Schoolmasters.  153 

those  countries  was  constant  from  the  earliest 
period. 

There  were  certainly  English  versions  of  the 
Spanish  grammars  of  Anthonio  de  Corro  and 
Gesare  Oudin  made  in  the  times  of  Elizabeth 
and  her  successor,  as  well  as  the  original  pro- 
duction by  Lewis  Owen,  entitled,  The  Key  into 
the  Spanish  Tongue.  But  these  were  assuredly 
never  used  as  ordinary  school-books,  and  were 
rather  designed  as  manuals  for  travellers  and 
literary  students;  and  the  same  is  predicable,  I 
apprehend,  of  the  anonymous  Portuguese  Dic- 
tionary and  Grammar  of  1701,  which  is  framed 
on  a  scale  hardly  adapted  for  the  requirements 
of  the  young. 

Yet  at  the  same  time  these,  and  many  more 
like  the  Dutch  Tutor,  the  Nether-Dutch  Academy, 
and  so  forth,  were  of  eminent  service  in  private 
tuition  and  select  classes,  where  a  pupil  was 
placed  with  a  coach  for  some  special  object,  or 
to  complete  the  studies  which  were  not  included 
in  the  school  programmes. 

Moreover,  it  is  not  to  be  overlooked  that  in 
the  polyglot  vocabulary  and  phrase-book  the 
student,  either  with  or  without  the  aid  of  a  tutor 


154  Schools,  School-Books, 

possessed  in  former  times  a  very  valuable  ma- 
chinery for  gaining  a  knowledge  of  languages  for 
conversational  and  commercial  purposes  ;  and 
these  works  sometimes  comprised  the  German, 
as  well  as  the  more  usual  tongues  employed  in 
correspondence  and  intercourse.  Thetitle-page 
of  one  of  them,  published  at  Antwerp  in  1576, 
expressly  intimates  its  utility  to  all  merchants; 
and  a  second  of  rather  earlier  date  (1548)  is 
specified  as  a  book  highly  necessary  to  every- 
body desirous  of  learning  the  languages  embra- 
ced in  it,  which  are  English,  French,  Spanish, 
Portuguese,  Flemish,  German,  and  Latin — a 
remarkable  complement,  as  very  few  are  more 
than  hexaglot. 

But  these  helps  were  of  course  outside  the 
schoolroom,  and  were  called  into  requisition 
chiefly  by  individuals  whose  vocations  took 
them  abroad,  or  rendered  an  acquaintance  with 
foreign  terms  more  or  less  imperative  ;  and  un- 
doubtedly our  extensive  mercantile  and  diplo- 
matic relations  with  all  parts  of  the  world  made 
this  class  of  supplementary  instruction  a  liveli- 
hood for  a  very  numerous  body  of  teachers. 

Perhaps  of  all  the  philological  undertakings 


and  Schoolmasters.  155 

of  the  kind,  the  most  singular  was  that  of  Augus- 
tine Spalding,  a  merchant  of  London,  who  in 
1614  published  a  translation  of  some  dialogues 
in  the  Malay  dialect,  from  a  book  compiled  by 
Arthusius  of  Dantzic  in  Latin,  Malayan,  and 
Malagassy;  and  he  informs  us  that  his  object 
was  to  serve  those  who  might  have  occasion  to 
travel  to  the  East  Indies. 

II.  Shakespear,  in  his  conception  of  HOLO- 
FERNES  in  "  Love's  Labours's  Lost,"  is  supposed 
to  have  taken  hints  from  one  of  the  foreigners 
who  settled  in  London  in  his  time  as  teachers  of 
languages,  the  celebrated  JOHN  FLORIO,  who  is 
best  known  as  the  first  English  translator  of  Mon- 
taigne, but  who  produced  a  good  deal  of  useful 
professional  work,  and  became  intimate  with 
many  of  the  literary  men  of  his  day.  We  can- 
not be  absolutely  sure  that  Florio  sat  for  Holo- 
fernes;  but  at  any  rate  the  dramatist  has  depicted 
in  that  character  in  a  most  inimitable  style  the 
priggish  mannerist,  as  he  knew  and  saw  him. 

The  City  of  London  itself,  with  all  its  great 
industrial  benefactions,  abounded  with  private 
schools  and  with  tutors  for  special  objects. 


156  Schools,  School-Book*, 

Some  of  them  were  authors,  not  only  of  school- 
books  for  the  use  of  their  own  pupils,  but  of 
translations  from  the  classics  and  from  foreign 
writers ;  and  they  had  their  quarters  in  localities 
long  since  abandoned  to  other  occupations, such 
as  Bow  Lane,  Mugwell  or  Monkwell  Street, 
Lothbury  Garden,  and  St.  Paul's  Churchyard, 
where  accommodation  was  once  readily  procur- 
able at  rents  commensurate  with  their  resources. 
Some  of  these  men  had  originally  presided  over 
similar  establishments  in  the  provinces,  and 
had  come  up  to  town,  not  doubt,  from  ambitious 
motives. 

Two  of  them,  in  Primers  which  they  published 
in  1682  and  1688,  when  such  distinctions  were 
important,  call  their  volumes  the  Protestant 
School  and  the  Protestant  Schoolmaster,  in  order 
to  reassure  parents,  who  distrusted  Papists  and 
Jacobites.  A  few  years  before, Nathaniel  Strong, 
dating  from  the  Hand  and  Pen,  in  Red-Cross 
Alley,  on  Great  Tower  Hill,  launched  what  he 
somewhat  unguardedly  christened  The  Perfect 
Schoolmaster.  This  part  of  the  metropolis  was 
at  that  time  rather  thickly  sown  with  teachers  of 
all  kinds;  as  you  drew  nearer  to  Wapping,  the 


and  Sctioolmaslei's.  157 

schools  of  geography  and  navigation  became 
more  conspicuous.  It  was  about  the  period 
when  Mr.  Secretary  Pepys  was  residing  in  Hart 
Street. 

In  connection  with  these  private  schools  on 
the  east  side  of  London,  for  the  special  advan- 
tage of  those  who  desired  to  embark  on  a  sea- 
faring, naval,  military,  or  other  technical  career, 
there  is  a  very  characteristic  and  suggestive  ad- 
vertisement by  one  John  Holwell  at  the  end  of 
an  astrological  tract  published  by  him  in  1683, 
where  he  states  that  he  professes  and  teaches  at 
his  house  on  the  east  side  of  Spitalfields,  opposite 
DorsetStreet,  next  door  to  a  glazier's,  not  merely 
such  matters  as  arithmetic,  geography,  trigono- 
metry, navigation,  astronomy,  dialling,  gaug- 
ing, surveying,  fortification,  and  gunnery,  but 
ASTROLOGY  in  all  its  parts ;  which  appears  to 
be  an  uncustomary  combination,  and  to  bespeak 
a  separate  class  or  department. 

Astrology,  which  was  a  sort  of  outgrowth  and 
development  from  the  judicial  astronomy  of  the 
early  Oxford  schoolmen,  had  been  a  source  of 
controversy  since  the  time  of  Elizabeth,  but  had 
gained  a  footing  in  the  following  century  through 


158  Schools,  School-Books, 

the  exertions  of  several  indefatigable  advocates 
and  writers,  of  whom  William  Lilly,  John  Par- 
tridge, and  John  Gadbury  were  the  most  emi- 
nent and  influential.  Lilly,  during  the  Civil 
War,  is  said  to  have  been  consulted  by  both  poli- 
tical parties;  and  he  published  a  small  library 
of  pamphlets  professing  to  see  into  futurity. 

III.  There  was  a  host  of  rival  authors,  some 
bringing  general  treatises  in  their  hand,  others 
special  branches  of  the  subject  handled  in  a  new 
fashion,  from  all  parts  of  the  kingdom  to  the 
London  publishing  firms.  Dr.  Walker,  head- 
master of  King  Edward  the  Sixth's  Grammar 
School  at  Louth  in  Lincolnshire,  completed  his 
monograph  on  Particles  in  1655;  it  is  the  only 
work  by  which  he  is  at  present  remembered ; 
and  it  occasioned  the  joke  that  his  epitaph 
should  be  :  Here  lie  Walker's  Particles. 

But  even  MILTON  could  not  desist  from  enter- 
ing into  the  competition, and,  two  years  after  the 
appearance  of  Paradise  Lost,  when  the  writer 
was,  of  course,  sufficiently  well  known  both  as  a 
political  controversialist  and  a  poet,  yet  scarcely 
so  famous  as  he  became  and  remains,came  out  a 


and  Schoolmasters.  159 

little  volume  called  Accidence  Commenced  Gram- 
mar,  of  which  the  main  object  was  to  reduce 
into  an  English  digest  the  Latin  Accidence  and 
Grammar,  by  which  the  illustrious  writer  de- 
clared and  complained  that  ten  years  of  an  ordi- 
nary life  were  consumed. 

But  advocates  of  particular  theories  had  a 
very  slender  chance  of  success,  even  where  their 
promoters  were  persons  so  distinguished  as 
Ben  Jonsori  and  Milton,  unless  they  possessed 
some  adventitious  interest  or  appealed  to  popu- 
lar sentiment. 

.4  Little  Booh  for  Little  Children,  by  Thomas 
White,  minister  of  the  Gospel,  had  an  astonish- 
ing run,  for  instance;  there  were  at  least  a  dozen 
editions;  but  it  was  embellished  with  choice 
woodcuts  of  the  Gatnach  school,  and  enlivened 
by  a  string  of  stories  which,  if  they  are  not  vapid 
and  silly,  are  simply  outrageous  and  revolting. 
The  sole  redeeming  feature  is,  that  among  the 
alphabets  occurs  what  is  sometimes  called  "  Tom 
Thumb's  Alphabet,"  —  "  A  was  an  Archer,  and 
shot  at  a  Frog,  "  —  which  is  not  found  in  the 
earlier  primers,  so  far  as  I  know,  and  may  have 
been  specially  written  by  White  or  for  him. 


160          Schools,   School-Books, 

But  the  numerous  experimental  essays  of  am- 
bitious schoolmasters  and  other  friends  to  the 
cause  of  learning  which  found  their  way  into 
type  at  various  times,  were,  as  a  rule,  speedily 
consigned  to  oblivion  ;  the  production  of  a  suc- 
cessful school-book  was  a  task  demanding  a  rare 
union  of  tact  in  structure  with  influence  in  initia- 
tive quarters;  and  Lily's  Primer,  itself  based 
on  the  labours  of  his  predecessors,  was  generally 
adopted  by  the  endowed  schools  throughout 
England,  Wales  and  Scotland  at  first,  and  in- 
deed till  somewhere  in  the  early  years  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  with  some  modifications  of 
detail  and  spelling,  but  at  last  in  the  form  of 
the  Eton  or  the  Westminster  Grammar,  which 
Carlisle  reports  in  1818  as  in  almost  universal 
use  in  this  country.  The  exceptions  which  he 
names  were  then  very  few,  and  we  see  that  they 
were  nearly  always  in  favour  of  some  text-book 
introduced  by  local  agency. 

This  was  the  case  at  Reading,  where  it  ap- 
pears that  the  system  of  teaching  was  founded 
on  those  of  Westminster,  Eton,  and  Winchester. 
At  Aylesbury,  Owen's  Latin  Grammar  and  the 
Eton  Greek  Grammar  used  to  be  employed. 


and  Schoolmasters.  161 

At  Bodmin,  Valpy's  Greek  Grammar,  and  at 
Faversham,  Lily's  Latin  Primer,  edited  by  Ward, 
were  preferred.  At  some  minor  schools,  where 
a  boy  was  intended  for  any  of  the  great  founda- 
tions, special  books  were  placed  in  his  hands 
to  facilitate  preparation. 

But  the  course  of  instruction  at  some  of  these 
institutions,  outside  the  elementary  stage,  was 
remarkably  liberal  and  extensive,  and  enabled 
a  boy  of  ability  to  ground  himself,  at  all  events, 
very  fairly  in  the  Greek  and  Roman  classics. 
This  was,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind,  however, 
the  dawn  of  a  ne-w  era— the  first  quarter  of  the 
nineteenth  century. 

A  class  of  men  who  influentially  helped  to 
carry  on  the  succession  of  school-books  and  the 
slower  process  of  amendment  were  the  private 
tutors  in  noble  or  distinguished  families,  who, 
when  their  services  were  no  longer  required,  if 
they  did  not  obtain  immediate  preferment,  re- 
ceived pupils  or  opened  proprietary  establish- 
ments. They  were,  for  the  most  part,  university 
graduates  and  persons  of  fair  attainments,  who 
were  glad  enough  to  introduce  into  print,  with 
a  double  eye  to  their  own  scholars  and  the 

L 


162  Schools,  School-Books, 

public,  the  system  or  theory  with  which  they 
had  started,  and  which  in  their  hands  under- 
went, perhaps,  certain  modifications. 

Matthias  Prideaux,  of  Exeter  College,  Oxford, 
and  A.  Lane,  M.  A.,  were  at  the  outset  of  their 
careers  retainers  of  this  kind  in  the  great  Devon- 
shire family  of  Reynell.  The  former  signalised 
himself  by  the  Introduction  to  History,  which, 
whatever  our  verdict  upon  it  may  be,was  a  highly 
successful  venture,  and,  after  serving  its  original 
purpose  as  a  class-book  for  his  private  pupils, 
the  sons  of  Sir  Thomas  Reynell,  was  printed 
and  held  the  market  for  many  years.  Lane, who 
was  a  man  of  ability  and  intelligence,  makes  his 
patron,  Sir  Richard  Reynell,  Lord  Chief  Justice 
of  Ireland,  share  with  him  the  credit  of  his 
Rational  and  Speedy  Method  of  attaining  to  the 
Latin  Tongue,  1695,  which  he  had  been  en- 
couraged by  Sir  Richard  to  pursue  with  young 
Reynell,  a  boy  of  eight,  and  which  formed,  no 
doubt,  the  basis  of  his  system  when  he  embarked 
on  tuition  as  a  career.  He  presided  at  first  over 
the  free  school  atLeominster,  but  subsequently 
set  up  for  himself  at  Mile  End  Green,  where  he 
would  be  at  fuller  liberty  to  follow  his  own  bent. 


and  Schoolmasters.  163 

Lane  desires  us  to  believe  that  the  progress 
made  by  his  young  pupil,  while  he  was  under 
his  charge,  was  little  less  than  miraculous  ; 
but  an  earlier  writer,  Christopher  Syrns,  in  his 
Introduction  to  the  Art  of  TeacJting  Ihe  Latin 
Speech,  1634,  gives  hope  to  the  dullest  boy 
that,  by  the  use  of  his  method,  he  may  acquire 
it  in  four  years. 

From  the  sixteenth  century  downward,  there 
seems  to  have  been  a  succession  of  competitors 
to  public  favour  and  support  in  this,  as  in  every 
other,  department  of  activity;  and  among  the 
whole  crowd  of  aspirants  there  was  not  one  who 
succeeded  in  discovering  the  true  principles  of 
the  art  till  our  owrn  time. 

IV.  The  absence  of  newspapers  or  other  ready 
means  of  communication  necessitated  a  resort 
to  a  system  of  advertising  educational  establish- 
ments through  the  medium  of  broadsides,  in 
which  were  set  forth  the  advantages  of  par- 
ticular institutions  and  the  branches  of  know- 
ledge in  which  instruction  was  to  be  had  there. 
As  early  as  1562,  Humphrey  Baker,  of  London, 
published  an  arithmetical  work  entitled  The 


164  Schools,  School-Book*, 

Wellspriny  of  Sciences,  which  was  frequently 
reprinted  both  in  his  lifetime  and  after  his 
decease;  but  he  was  a  teacher  of  the  art,  as 
well  as  a  writer  upon  it,  and  there  is  a  printed 
sheet  announcinghis  arrangements  for  receiving 
pupils,  and  giving  lessons  in  that  and  various 
other  subjects.  For,  as  the  terms  of  the  docu- 
ment, herewith  annexed,  shew,  Baker  had  in  his 
employment  other  gentlemen,  who  assisted  him 
in  his  scholastic  labours  : — 

"Such  as  are  desirous,  eyther  themselves  to 
learne,  or  to  have  theyr  children  or  servants 
instructed  in  any  of  these  Arts  and  Faculties 
heere  under  named  :  It  may  please  them  to 
repayre  unto  the  house  of  Hum  fry  Baker, dwell- 
ing on  the  North  side  of  the  Royall  Exchange, 
nextadjoyning  tothesigne  of  the  shippe.  Where 
they  shall  fynde  the  Professors  of  the  said  Artes, 
&c.  Readie  to  doe  their  diligent  endevours  for  a 
reasonable  consideration.  Also  if  any  be  minded 
to  have  their  children  boorded  at  the  said  house, 
for  the  speedier  expedition  of  their  learning, 
they  shall  be  well  and  reasonably  used,  to  theyr 

contentation The  Arts  and  Faculties  to  be 

taught  are  these,  .  .  .  God  save  the  Queene." 


and  Schoolmasters.       ^      105 

The  case  of  Baker  merely  stands  alone  be- 
cause we  do  not  happen  to  be  in  possession 
of  any  similar  contemporary  testimony.  But 
schoolmasters  who  resided  at  their  own  private 
houses  found  it,  of  course,  indispensable  to 
adopt  some  method  or  other  of  making  their 
professional  whereabouts  known,  as  we  find 
Peter  Bales,  the  Elizabethan  calligraphist,  and 
author  of  the  Writinc/  School-master,  1590, 
notifying,  at  the  foot  of  the  title  to  his  book, 
that  it  was  to  be  sold  at  his  house  in  the  upper 
end  of  the  Old  Bailey,  u  where  he  teacheth  the 
said  Arts."  Bales  probably  rented  the  house, 
and  underlet  such  portions  as  he  did  not  require; 
for  at  the  end  of  Ripley's  Compound  of  Alchemy, 
1591,  Rabbards,  the  translator,  asks  those  who 
had  any  corrections  to  suggest  in  the  text  to. 
send  them  to  him  at  the  house  of  Peter  Bales. 

Preceptors  naturally  congregated  near  the 
centre  of  mercantile  life. 


(    166     ) 


CIIAP1TRE  XL 

PropoM'd  University  ot  London  in  1347 -- The  Museum 
Mh/erm'  at  Bethnal  Green  —  Its  catholic  character  and 
liberal  programme  —  Calligraphy  —  Shorthand  —  Bright's 
system  patended  in  1588  ~  Education  in  the  provinces  — 
The  old  school  at  Manchester  —  Shakespear's  Sir  Hugh 
l-lvun*  and  Holofernes — "William  Hazlitt's  account  of 
his  Shropshire  school  in  1788. 

I.  IT  is  a  fact,  probably  within  the  knowledge 
of  very  few,  that  two  hundred  years  and  more 
before  the  actual  establishment  of  the  University 
of  London,  a  project  for  such  an  institution  was 
mooted  by  an  anonymous  pamphleteeiywho  in  ay 
be  considered  as  a  kind  of  pioneer,  preceding 
the  Benthams  and  Broughams. 

I  hold  in  my  hand  Motives  Grounded  upon 
the  Word  of  God,  and  upon  Honour.,  Profit,  and 
Pleasure  for  the  present  Founding  an  University 
in  the  Metropolis,  London,  1647.  It  purports  to 


Schools  mid  Schoolmasters.       167 

be  the  work  of  "  a  true  Lover  of  his  Nation,  and 
especially  of  the  said  City. " 

The  lines  and  object  in  this  piece  are  purely 
clerical.  The  author  maintains  the  insufficiency 
of  the  two  existing  Universities  and  the  College 
in  Ireland  to  rear  as  many  "  sons  of  the  Pro- 
phets "—an  euphemism  for  parsons— to  attend 
upon  the  spiritual  needs  of  the  English  and  the 
Londoners. 

He  puts  down  on  paper  statistics  of  the  num- 
ber of  scholars  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  and 
he  argues  that  if  the  total  were  much  larger  — 
10,000  instead  of  5900 -there  would  be  no 
means  of  raising  the  20,000  preachers  necessary 
in  his  view  to  carry  on  the  business  of  religion. 
He  pleads  the  fall  of  Episcopacy  in  support  of 
his  scheme,  as  "•  we  cannot  hope,"  he  says,  "that 
so  many  will  apply  their  studies  to  Divinity,  and 
therefore  have  the  greater  need  to  maintain  the 
more  poor  scholars  at  our  Universities,"  or,  in 
other  words,  the  absence  of  the  prizes  in  the  lot- 
tery had  taken  the  best  men  out  of  the  market. 
In  fact,  the  writer  himself  does  not  shrink  alto- 
gether from  presenting  the  commercial  side  of 
the  question,  for  he  observes  : — "Without  injury 


168          Schools,  School-Books, 

unto  any,  an  University  in  London  would  in- 
crease London's  Trading,  and  inrich  London, 
as  the  Scholars  do  Cambridge  and  Oxford, where 
how  many  poor  people  also  are  benefited  by  the 
Colleges,  yea,  the  countries  round  about  them/' 

So  far,  so  good;  but  he,  in  the  very  next  para- 
graph, strikes  a  chord  which  jars  upon  the  ear. 
We  see  that  he  is  a  partisan  of  that  theory 
which  flourished  here  down  to  our  own  day,  and 
which  contributed  so  powerfully  to  retard  and 
cripple  our  scholastic  and  academical  studies. 
Hear  what  he  says  :  "  If  here  in  London  there 
be  a  College,  in  which  nothing  but  Latin  shall 
be  spoken,  and  your  children  put  into  it,  and 
from  ten  years  old  to  twelve  hear  no  other  Lan- 
guage, in  those  two  years  they  will  be  able  to 
speak  as  good  Latin  as  they  do  English,  and  as 
readily.  The  Roman  children  learned  Latin  as 
ours  do  English...;"  and  so  he  goes  on  as  to 
Greek,  Hebrew,  Italian,  French,  and  Spanish. 

The  sole  point  here,  in  our  modern  estima- 
tion, is  the  admission  of  the  three  living  lan- 
guages into  the  'curriculum,  in  order  to  qualify 
the  students  in  later  life  to  make  themselves 
understood  abroad  either  as  merchants  or  as 


and  Schoolmasters.  169 

diplomatists.  But  here  he  \vas  before  his  time. 
Nothing  of  the  kind  was  to  be  attempted  in 
England  for  generations.  For  generations  Eng- 
lishmen were  to  be  instructed  only  in  the  dead 
tongues,  and  were  to  have  not  an  English,  but 
a  Latin  Grammar  put  into  their  hands  age  after 
age. 

He  talks  about  the  Roman  youth  learning 
Latin  as  we  do  English;  but  he  failed,  perhaps, 
to  perceive  that  they  did  not  learn  British  or 
Gaulish  as  wre  do  Latin.  His  text  is  wealthy 
in  Scriptural  quotations  and  parallels;  but  what- 
ever one  may  think  of  his  notions  regarding  the 
details  and  advantages  ol  such  a  plan,  this  un- 
named "  true  Lover  of  his  Nation'1  is  entitled,  at 
any  rate,  to  the  credit  and  distinction  of  having 
been  apparently  the  first  to  suggest  what  we 
have  now  before  us  in  the  shape  of  an  accom- 
plished fact. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  assert,  probably,  that  if 
the  appearance  of  this  tract  had  been  followed 
•by  the  execution  of  the  ideas  enunciated  in  it, 
the  force  of  opinion  would  by  this  time  have 
spared  very  little  of  the  work  of  the  original 
promoters. 


170  Schools,  School-Books, 

II.  The  Miisoeum  Minervce.,  instituted  by  Sir 
Balthazar  Gerbier  d'Ouvilly  at  Bethnal  Green 
in  1635,  presents  a  thorough  contrast  to  those 
philanthropic  or  eleemosynary  institutions  of 
which  I  have  lately  spoken,  inasmush  as  it 
was  a  novel  and  costly  apparatus  of  Continental 
origin,  calculated  only  for  the  children  of  rich 
persons  and  for  those  who  desired  to  complete 
themselves  in  various  accomplishments.  Lec- 
tures were  delivered  on  several  subjects,  and 
printed  afterwards  for  circulation ;  but  the 
enterprise  did  not  succeed,  and  the  outbreak 
of  the  Civil  War  probably  sealed  its  doom. 
Yet  as  late  as  1649  the  management,  or  the 
founder  himself,  issued  a  prospectus  of  the  dif- 
ferent branches  of  learning  and  culture  which 
were  taught  at  this  establishment.  The  language 
of  this  document,  which  is  curious  enough  to 
append  entire,  portends  the  approaching  col- 
lapse, and  reads  like  a  final  appeal  to  public 
spirit  and  patronage  :  — 

"  To  all  Fathers  of  NOBLE  FAMILIES  and 
Lovers  of  VERTU'E  :  Sir  Balthazar  Gerbier 
desires  once  more  that  the  Publique  may  be 
pleased  to  take  notice  of  his  great  labours  and 


and  Schoolmasters.  171 

indeavours  by  the  Erection  of  an  Academy 
on  Bednall  Green  without  Aldgate.  To  teach 
Hebrew,  Greek,  Latine,  French,  Italian,  Spanish, 
High  Dutch,  and  Loiv  Dutch,  both  Ancient  and 
Modern  Histories,  joyntly  with  the  Constitutions 
and  Governments  of  the  most  famous  Empires 
and  Dominions  in  the-  World,  the  true  Naturall 
andExperimentall  Philosophy,  the Malhema ticks, 
Arithmetic!;,  and  the  keeping  Booties  of  Accounts 
by  Creditor  and  Debitor.  All  excellent  Hand- 
H.'ritiny,  Geometric,  Cosmography,  Geography, 
Perspective,  Architecture,  Secret  Motions  of 
Scenes,  Fortifications,  the  besieging  &  Defending 
of  Places,  Fire-  ~\Vorks,  Marches  of  A  rm  ies,  Order- 
ing of  fiattailes,  Fencing,  Vaulting,  Riding  the 
Great  Horse,  Mustek,  Playing  on  all  sorts  of 
Instruments, Dancing, Drawing,  Painting, Limn- 
ing, and  Carving,  &c." 

It  is  at  once  apparent  that  the  programme  of 
the  Bethnal  Green  Academy  was  too  ambitious 
and  expensive  to  suit  moderate  careers  ;>nd 
limited  resources.  Perhaps  if  it  had  been  so 
fortunate  as  to  outlive  the  Restoration  it  might 
have  proved  a  success,  as  the  range  was  suffi- 
ciently capacious  to  accommodate  those  who 


172          Schools,  School-Book*, 

contented  themselves  with  ordinary  school  or 
college  routine ;  those  who  preferred  a  study 
of  the  sciences  and  arts ;  and,  again,  such  as 
desired  a  special  professional  training. 

The  establishment  of  the  Mmce-urn  in  1635 
had  been  inaugurated  by  a  dramatic  perfor- 
mance, which  the  Court  honoured  with  its 
presence;  and  in  the  following  year  the  Consti- 
tutions, as  they  are  called,  were  printed. 

These  give,  but  of  course  with  more  detail, 
the  particulars  which  present  themselves  in  the 
advertisement  just  noticed;  and  they  also  shew 
that  there'  was  a  preparatory  school  attached  to 
the  Musoeum,  from  which  the  pupils  might  be 
drafted  into  the  higher  one. 

The  subjects  taught  exhibit  a  diversity  of 
character  and  a  width  of  sympathy  which  are 
powerfully  at  variance  with  the  meagre  pro- 
grammes of  the  old-fashioned  public  founda- 
tions. They  comprised  Heraldry,  Conveyancing, 
Common  Lawr,  Antiquities  (including  Numis- 
matics), Agriculture,  Arithmetic,  Architecture, 
Fortification,  Geography,  Languages,  and  Elo- 
cution, with  many  more  matters. 

It  is  worth  remarking  that  now  for  the  first 


and  Schoolmasters.  173 

time  the  German  tongue  was  included  in  the 
list  of  those  which  were  recommended  and  set 
down  for  study,  while  the  Dutch  also  occurs 
in  the  list.  Elocution  or  u  the  art  of  well- 
speaking."  as  it  is  termed,  was  also  a  novel 
feature;  and,  in  point  of  fact,  Gerbier,  who  had 
travelled  much  abroad  and  observed  the  superior 
educational  systems  of  foreign  countries,  sought 
to  introduce  here  the  same  catholic  and  liberal 
spirit,  instead  of  the  imperfect  and  cramped 
course  of  studies  with  which  Englishmen  were 
forced  to  be  contented,  and  which  had  scarcely 
emerged  from  mediaeval  simplicity  and  crudity. 

The  Mtimrttm  Minervm,  of  which  a  Shropshire 
gentleman,  Sir  Francis  Kinaston,  of  Oteley,was 
the  first  Regent,  collapsed  about  1650;  but  its 
example  and  influence  survived,  and  it  was  the 
forerunner  of  a  broader  and  more  enlightened 
educational  policy  and  of  the  modern  type  of 
training  colleges,  into  which  even  those  ancient 
endowed  schools  which  remain  have  been  com- 
pelled by  the  force  of  public  opinion,  one  by 
one,  to  resolve  themselves. 

These  Academies  present  a  very  powerful  con- 
trast to  the  archaic  school  in  the  multiplicity  of 


174  Schools,  School-Books, 

acquirements,  and  in  the  breadth  or  variety  of 
culture  which  they  afforded  and  encouraged. 
They  betokeu  a  developmen  of  social  wants 
and  refinements,  and  the  force  of  influences  re- 
ceived from  surrounding  countries.  It  was  a 
supply  which  responded  to  a  demand;  and  it 
helped  to  create  or  extend  a  field  of  literary 
industry  in  the  form  of  technical  publications 
dealing  with  the  principal  subjects,  which  the 
Musoeuin  Minervoe  and  other  analogous  insti- 
tutions included  in  their  scheme.  To  the  trea- 
tises on  Riding,  Swimming,  Drawing,  Writing, 
and  a  few  other  arts  were  added  Manuals  for  the 
use  of  those  who  studied,  at  the  College  or  under 
private  instructors,  the  sciences  of  Fencing, 
Vaulting,  Small  Sword  Exercise,  Fortification, 
and  the  accomplishments  specified  in  the  pro- 
gramme of  the  Minerva  Museum.  A  constant 
succession  of  text-books  for  pupils  in  nearly  all 
these  branches  of  a  polite  education  kept  the 
makers  and  the  vendors  of  them  busy  from 
the  age  of  Elizabeth  downward;  and  long  lists 
might  be  furnished  of  contributions  to  every 
department,  both  by  professional  experts  and  by 
amateurs  of  practical  experience. 


and  Schoolmasters.  1/5 

Ladies,  who  desired  to  learn  anything  special 
in  excess  of  the  narrow  educational  routine  then 
deemed  sufficient  for  the  call  of  their  sex,  de- 
pended on  private  tutors,  who  usually  waited 
upon  them  at  their  own  homes.  Thomas  Greet- 
ing taught  Mrs.  Pepys  the  flageolet,  for  example, 
and  the  same  lady  had  lessons  in  drawing  from 
Alexander  Browne,  who  made  the  diarist  angry 
at  first,  because  he  was  asked  by  Mrs.  Pepys  to 
stay  dinner  sometimes,  and  to  sit  at  table  with 
her  husband. 

The  importance  of  calligraphy  was  recognised 
long  before  the  date  of  any  literary  monuments 
of  its  development.  The  earliest  professor  of 
the  art  who  appeared  in  print  among  us  was  a 
Frenchman,  Jean  de  Beauchesne,  who  resided 
in  Blackfriars,  and  published  in  1570  his  writ- 
ing-book, in  which  he  affords  specimens  of  all 
the  usual  hands,  English  and  French  secretary, 
Italian,  Chancery,  and  Court.  Even  the  extant 
productions  of  this  class,  including  those  of  the 
immortal  Gocker,would  fill  a  considerable  space 
in  a  bookcase;  and  many  belonged  to  the  call- 
ing without  the  parade  of  authorship,  while  of 
such  fugitive  performances  the  remains  are  apt 


176  Schools,  School-Books , 

to  be  incomplete,  and  to  present  us  with  a  list 
of  names  far  from  exhaustive. 

In  his  "Pen's  Triumph,"  1660,  Cocker,  who 
is  better  remembered  as  an  author  on  arith- 
metic, perhaps  for  no  farther  reason  than  the 
force  of  the  adage,  but  who  was  also  a  lexico- 
grapher and  a  voluminous  producer  of  writing- 
books,  instructs  his  pupils  and  the  public  not 
merely  in  all  the  hands  at  that  time  employed 
for  various  objects,  but  how  "  to  write  with 
gold,'1  which  was,  of  course,  no  novelty,  but 
had  been  more  in  vogue  on  the  Continent  than 
here . 

Entire  works  were  executed  in  autograph  MS. 
by  experts,  both  in  England  and  abroad,  for  the 
purpose  of  presentation  to  noble  or  royal  per- 
sonages; and  Ballard  gives  a  copious  account 
of  a  lady,  named  Esther  Inglis,  who, in  the  early 
portion  of  tfre  seventeenth  century,  signalised 
her  talent  and  ingenuity  in  this  way.  Her  work 
was  remarkable  for  the  minuteness  and  exqui- 
site delicacy  of  its  characters  ;  but  nearly  all 
the  professional  writing-masters  introduced  into 
their  copybooks  bold  and  intricate  designs,  and 
figures  of  animals,  for  the  sake  of  rendering  the 


and  Schoolmasters.  177 

volumes  more  attractive,  and  illustrating  the 
capabilities  of  the  goose-quill. 

Among  our  foremost  literary  celebrities, 
Shakespear  wrote  the  Court  hand,  judging  from 
his  signature,  and  Paeon  and  Ben  Jonson  the 
Italian. 

Charactery,  or  the  art  of  shorthand,  was  in- 
troduced into  the  Nonconformist  schools  as  a 
taught  subject  for  the  sake  of  enabling  youths 
or  others  to  take  notes  of  sermons  and  lectures; 
and  some  of  the  discourses  from  the  pulpit  in 
the  time  of  Elizabeth  purport  to  have  been 
printed  from  shorthand  notes.  Dr.  Bright,  who 
was  the  writer  of  a  work  on  Melancholy  long 
antecedent  to  Burton's,  procured  an  exclusive 
right  in  1588  to  publish  a  system  which  he  had 
invented  for  this  purpose,  and  which  we  find 
described  by  him  as  "  an  art  of  short,  swift,  and 
secret  writing."  He  set  in  motion  an  idea 
which  met  with  such  numerous  imitators  and 
improvers,  that  a  catalogue  of  the  publications 
on  Tachygraphy  down  to  the  present  date  forms 
a  volume  of  respectable  dimensions.  Bright 
was  nearly  a  century  before  the  more  celebrated 
Rich,  who  flourished  about  the  Restoration  of 

M 


178          Schools,  School-Books, 

the  Stuarts,  and  whose  cypher  was  adopted  by 
Pepys  in  the  composition  of  his  diary. 


III.  The  public  schools  were  not  the  first  in 
emulating  and  continuing  the  policy  which  Ger- 
bier  had  laboured  so  hard  and  so  long  to  estab- 
lish. On  a  less  expensive  and  ostentatious  scale 
certain  private  academies  adopted  the  idea  of 
supplementing  the  subjects  taught  in  the  great 
foundations  by  some,  at  least,  of  the  manly  or 
elegant  arts  which  had  figured  in  the  old  Beth- 
nal  Green  prospectus. 

At  the  end  of  a  Musical  Entertainment,  pre- 
pared in  1676  for  recitation  by  some  school- 
boys in  the  presence  of  certain  persons  of  qua- 
lity, the  master  favours  us  with  some  particulars 
of  the  subjects  which  pupils  might  take  up  in 
his  establishment,  and  it  is  also  inferable  that 
the  hours  of  study  extended  to  at  least  five 
o'clock  in  the  evening.  He  says  in  a  kind  of 
postscript  to  the  printed  tract  :— 

i(  The  Arts  and  Sciences  taught  and  practis'd 
in  the  Academy  are  these. 

All  sorts  of  Instruments,  Singing  and  Danc- 
ing. 


and    Schoolmasters.  179 

French  and  Italian. 
The  Mathematicks. 

Grammar,  Writing  and  Arithmetic};. 
Painting  and  Drawing. 
Fencing,  Vaulting  and  Wrastling." 
This  was  an  unusually  liberal  choice,  and  the 
Academy  was  evidently  one  designed  more  par- 
ticularly for  the  children  of  noble  or  wealthy 
people.    He  adds  : — 

"  Or  any  young  Gentleman  design'd  for  Tra- 
vel, there  are  persons  of  several  Nations  fit  to 
instruct  him  in  any  Language. 

"  Likewise  any  one  that  hath  a  desire  to  have 
any  New  Songs  or  Tunes,  may  be  furnished  by 
the  same  Person  that  serves  his  Majesty  in  the 
same  Imployment." 

This  is  altogether  worth  attention.  It  is  a 
pity  that  we  cannot  arrive  at  the  name  or  loca- 
lity of  the  college  where  all  these  advantages 
and  temptations  (in  the  way  of  buying  your 
Songs  of  the  King's  own  purveyor)  were  held 
out  to  the  aspiring  gentry  of  two  centnries  ago. 

IV.  In  all  the  great  provincial  centres  there 
were,  of  course,  educational  institutes  supported 


180          Schools,   School-Books, 

by  local  or  royal  endowment ;  and  in  all  these 
the  method  of  teaching  and  general  policy  fol- 
lowed that  pursued  in  the  metropolis,  except 
that,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  some  of  the  estab- 
lishments in  the  country  trod  in  the  footsteps 
of  the  Academy  just  described  more  promptly 
and  more  cordially  than  St.  Paul's  or  Merchant 
Taylors',  which  modified  their  constitutions  only 
to  save  themselves  from  ruin. 

Of  the  seventeenth-century  school  at  Man- 
chester we  gain  an  accidental  glimpse  and  notion 
from  the  Delectus  of  Lathi  Phrases  which  was 
prepared  for  use  there  by  a  former  scholar, 
Thomas  Bracebridge.  It  is  a  MS.  volume  of 
no  interest  or  moment,  unless  it  is  locally  and 
personally  regarded;  but  one  is  apt  to  cherish 
every  added  fraction  of  light  as  to  the  state  of 
education  in  the  Midlands  in  former  days ;  and 
this  Delectus  carries  us  back  precisely  to  the 
Restoration,  so  far  as  its  mere  date  is  concerned, 
but  furnishes  a  fair  idea  of  the  sort  of  phrase- 
book  which  a  Manchester  teacher  of  1660 
thought  suitable  for  the  boys  of  his  old  school. 

In  Sir  Hugh  Evans,  the  Welsh  parson  and 
schoolmaster,  Shakespear  has  not  improbably 


and  Schoolmasters.  181 

preserved  to  us  some  fragmentary  reminiscences 
of  his  own  school-days  at  Stratford.  The  pro- 
bation through  which  William  Page  is  put  by 
Sir  Hugh  at  his  mother's  instance  might  very 
well  be  a  literal  or  close  transcript  from  actual 
experience.  With  what  mingled  feelings  the 
poet  must  have  contemplated  a  class  of  men  to 
whom  such  minds  as  his  have  ever  owed  so 
little  ! 

Both  Sir  Hugh  and  the  Reverend  Doctor 
Primrose  may  be  accepted  as  provincial  types 
of  the  clerical  preceptor,  as  they  seemed  to  two 
excellent  observers  in  their  respective  centuries. 
We  easily  remark  the  difference  between  them 
and  such  a  creation  as  Holofernes. 

The  course  of  studies  followed  in  the  rural 
districts  of  England  at  alater  period  is  illu  strated 
by  a  letter  from  Hazlitt,  the  essayist,  to  his  elder 
brother,  the  miniature-painter,  when  the  former 
was  attending  a  school  at  Wem  in  Shropshire 
in  1788.  He  was  at  that  time  ten  years  old. 
After  stating  that  he  had  been  learning  to  draw, 
he  proceeds:  —  "Next  Monday  I  shall  begin  to 
read  Ovid's  Metamorphoses  and  Eutropius.  .  .  . 
I  began  to  cypher  a  fortnight  after  Christmas, 


182  Schools,  School-Books, 

and  shall  go  into  the  rule  of  three  next  week. 
...  I  shall  go  through  the  whole  cyphering 
book  this  summer,  and  then  I  am  to  learn 
Euclid.  We  go  to  school  at  nine  every  morn- 
ing. Three  boys  begin  by  reading  the  Bible. 
Then  I  and  two  others  show  our  exercices.  We 
then  read  the  Speaker  [by  Enfield].  Then  we 
all  set  about  our  lessons  ...  At  eleven  we 
write  and  cypher.  In  the  afternoon  we  stand 
for  places  at  spelling,  and  I  am  almost  always 
first.  ...  I  shall  go  to  dancing  this  month." 

The  glimpse  which  we  here  obtain  of  a  small 
priv'ate  seminary  in  a  Shropshire  village  a  hun- 
dred years  ago  affords  a  not  unfavourable  notion 
of  the  standard  of  provincial  education.  From 
another  letter  of  Hazlitt  a  little  later  on  (1790) 
it  appears  that  the  celebrated  Dr.  Lempriere, 
whose  name  the  lad  transformed  into  Doloungh- 
pryee,  was  a  visitor  at  the  school ;  but  he 
had  not  yet  produced  his  Dictionary,  of  which 
the  first  edition  was  in  1792.  It  was  still  in 
use  at  Merchant  Taylors'  in  1850. 

The  proprietary  establishments  for  boys,which 
spread  themselves  by  degrees  over  the  land, 
formed  a  valuable  succedaneum  to  the  Edward 


and  Schoolmasters.  183 

and  other  endowed  schools,  and  useful  nurseries 
for  pupils  who  aimed  at  more  than  elementary 
learning.  But  they  at  the  same  time  proved  a 
source  of  emulation  and  material  improvement; 
and  during  the  last  fifty  years  the  distance  be- 
tween the  two  systems  has  sensibly  decreased. 

The  great  charities  and  other  ancient  foun- 
dations like  St.  Paul's,  Merchant  Taylors1,  Eton, 
Harrow,  have  only  maintained  their  relative 
superiority  by  reforming  and  extending  their 
prospectus;  and  there  is  scarcely  a  country 
town  at  the  present  moment  without  one  or 
more  private  seminaries,  where  a  better  educa- 
tion is  given  than  was  within  the  reach  of  our 
grandfathers  at  any  of  the  large  public  schools 
of  the  metropolis. 

Even  in  the  time  of  Carlisle,  who  wrote  in 
1818,  some  of  the  principal  institutions  in  the 
provinces  were  treading  closely  on  the  heels  of 
Christ's  Hospital  and  other  endowments,  and 
one  or  two,  as  at  Dorchester,  at  Abingdon,  and 
at  Witton  near  Chester,  seem  to  have  been  on 
a  more  liberal  and  enlightened  footing. 


(    184    ) 


XII. 

Educational  condition  of  SCOTLAND  —  Beneficial  influence 
of  Knox  and  his  supporters  — Bud. anan  and  other  early 
writers  on  grammar  -Thomas  Ruddiman  and  his  im- 
portant contribution  to  the  spread  of  elementary  teach- 
ing— Decline  of  culture  during  the  Civil  War. 

I.  WHEN  \ve  turn  to  Scotland,  we  find  the 
compendium  of  the  Grammar  of  ^Elius  Donatus, 
of  which  I  have  already  furnished  some  account, 
in  use  there  from  time  almost  immemorial.  It 
appears  that  the  Scotish  seminaries  adopted 
this  favourite  class-book  in  common  with  those 
of  England  at  least  as  far  back  as  the  time  of 
Andrew  of  Wyntown,  who  was  nearly  contem- 
porary with  Langland  and  Chaucer.  In  his 
Original  Chronicle  of  Scotland  he  speaks  of  the 
Barnys  (bairns)  lering  Donate  at  their  begin- 
ning of  Grammar;  which  is  a  very  interesting 
and  important  piece  of  testimony  in  its  way  since 


Schools  and  Schoolmasters.       185 

there  is  so  little  to  enable  us  to  form  an  opinion 
of  the  rise  and  growth  of  elementary  learning  in 
North  Britain,  although  there  maybe  just  suffi- 
cient light  cast  incidentally  or  indirectly  on  the 
subject  to  lead  us  to  judge  that  Scotland,  if  not 
indeed  the  North  generally,  was  in  this  respect, 
as  in  others,  far  behind  the  Southern  English. 

In  Scotland,  the  influence  of  Knox  and  his 
supporters  favoured  the  early  institution  of 
parochial  schools  throughout  the  country,where 
a  class  and  range  of  instruction  prevailed  which, 
combined  with  native  religious  tendencies,  had 
the  effect  of  increasing,  in  comparison  with  Eng- 
land, the  average  of  educated  intelligence  with- 
out developing  much  breadth  of  thought  or 
much  intellectual  refinement. 

The  aims  of  the  parish  schools  are  humble, 
and  beyond  its  limited  possibilities  there  are  its 
impediments  and  its  snares.  In  addition  to 
schools,  the  friends  of  education  in  the  North, 
as  early  as  the  reign  of  William  III.,  commenced 
an  agitation  for  the  establishment  of  parochial 
libraries  even  in  the  Highlands.  The  move- 
ment was  set  on  foot  by  certain  ministers  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church,  and  its  basis  and  scope 


186  Schools,  School-Books, 

would  have  been  narrow  enough  if  the  idea  had 
been  realised.  But  nothing  beyond  a  discus- 
sion and  some  correspondence  seems  to  have 
resulted  at  the  moment. 

Nor  do  we,  even  as  time  goes  on,  find  much 
information  obtainable  on  this  part  of  the  sub- 
ject. But  both  the  systems  and  the  books  em- 
ployed were  for  some  centuries  of  foreign  origin; 
and  the  grammatical  publications  of  an  Aber- 
deen man,  John  Vans,  whose  name  seems  to  be 
the  earliest  on  the  roll  of  native  authors,  were, 
so  far  as  we  at  present  know,  without  exception 
published,  as  well  as  written,  in  France,  to  which 
Scotland  perhaps  owed,  among  other  matters, 
her  adoption  of  the  Continental  law  of  Latin 
pronunciation. 

Vans  grounded  his  Rudiments, printed  at  Paris 
repeatedly  about  1520,  on  the  old  Doctrinale  of 
Alexander  Gallus,  which  bespeaks  a  backward- 
ness of  information,  since  at  this  date  Lily's 
Grammar  was  already  in  use  in  the  South,  and 
even  the  systems  of  Whittinton  and  the  other 
disciples  of  the  Magdalen  School  method  had 
been  almost  completely  discarded  there,  except, 
perhaps,  as  occasional  auxiliaries. 


and  Schoolmasters.  187 

At  a  later  period,  the  eminent  Scotsman 
Buchanan  wrote  his  little  work  on  Prosody, 
and  two  others  of  his  countrymen,  Andrew 
Symson  and  James  Garmichael,  reduced  to  a 
simpler  plan  the  principles  of  elementary  learn- 
ing and  the  outlines  of  etymology. 

The  first  explicit  attempt  to  produce  a  gram- 
mar in  Scotland  for  the  special  use  of  that 
country  is  due,  however,  to  Alexander  Hume, 
who  is  known  to  us  not  only  as  an  educational 
reformer,  but  as  a  philological  student.  His 
New  Grammar  for  the  Use  of  the  Scotish  Youth, 
1612,  was  a  popular  compendium  founded  on 
Lily;  it  seems  to  have  met  with  limited  and 
brief  acceptance,  and  his  tract  on  the  Ortho- 
graphy and  Congruity  of  the  British  Tongue, 
which  was  a  literary  essay  intended  rather  for 
the  closet  (to  use  the  old-fashioned  parlance), 
remained  till  lately  in  MS. 

II.  But  books  of  instruction  and  for  employ- 
ment in  schools  continued,  down  to  the  days  of 
THOMAS  RUDDIMAN,  to  be  at  once  scarce  and 
unsatisfactory,  insomuch  that,  side  by  side  with 
these  and  other  unrecovered  productions,  it  was 


188          Schools,  School-Book*, 

found  possible  and  convenient  to  keep  in  print 
the  old  text-books  of  Stanbridge,  of  which  edi- 
tions continued  to  be  issued  at  intervals  both 
here  and  in  England  down  to  the  middle  of  the 
seventeenth  century. 

Ruddiman  may  be  considered  as  the  apostle 
of  scholastic  education  and  literature  in  Scot- 
land ;  and  as  he  was  not  born  till  1674,  this 
amounts  to  a  proposition, that  his  country  was 
at  least  two  centuries  behind  England  in  know- 
ledge and  culture.  Even  Ruddiman  was  brought 
up  at  the  parish  school,  and  was,  moreover,  for 
some  time  a  parochial  teacher.  Rut,  partly  by 
force  of  character  and  partly  by  good  fortune, 
he  extricated  himself  from  his  early  associa- 
tions, and  became  the  Lily  of  the  North.  His 
Rudiments  of  Grammar  were  published  in 
1714,  when  he  was  already  in  middle  life ; 
they  were  little  more  than  the  St.  Paul's 
Primer  calculated  for  the  meridian  of  Edin- 
burgh ;  but  they  proved  eminently  successful, 
and  encouraged  him  to  proceed  with  that 
more  important  philological  enterprise  the  In- 
stitutions of  Latin  Grammar,  which,  like  the 
disquisition  of  Alexander  Hume  recently  men- 


and  Schoolmasters.  189 

tioned,  was  an  ordinary  unprofessional  piece 
of  authorship. 

But,  notwithstanding  the  useful  labours  of 
Huddiman,  his  country,  from  political  and  other 
agencies,  remained  yet  for  a  considerable  length 
of  time  in  a  very  stagnant  condition,  nor  had 
any  sensible  improvement  been  achieved  in  the 
educational  machinery  of  that  portion  of  the 
empire  within  the  recollection  of  those  still 
living.  Mental  training  and  culture,  as  they  are 
now  understood,  are  the  growth  of  the  last  half 
century.  But  the  cost  of  such  accomplishments 
as  were  taught  at  Glasgow,  Aberdeen,  and  St. 
Andrews  was  lower  than  in  England,  and  the 
standard  higher  than  in  Ireland;  and  from  both 
countries  pupils  were  often  sent  in  former  days 
to  complete  their  education,  where  their  parents 
could  not  have  aflorded  the  means  to  maintain 
them  at  Oxford  or  Cambridge.  From  a  hundred 
to  a  hundred  and  thirty  years  since,  the  fees  at 
Glasgow-  University  did  not  exceed  £  20  a  year, 
and  a  frugal  lad  found  seven  or  eight  shillings  a 
week  sufficient  for  his  board  and  lodging. 

III.    Many   causes   contributed/  toward  the 


190          Schools,  School-Book*, 

middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  to  favour 
the  disorganisation  and  decay  of  scholastic 
learning  ;  but,  above  all,  the  outbreak  of  the 
Civil  War,  and  the  consequent  disorder,  de- 
pression, and  inquietude,  seem  to  have  reduced 
the  educational  standard,  and  to  have  thrown 
the  task  of  instruction,  in  a  great  number  of 
cases,  into  the  hands  of  the  clergy,  from  the 
want  of  funds  or  the  lack  of  inclination  to 
support  the  former  lay-teachers.  The  acute 
political  crisis,  which  lasted  without  interrup- 
tion from  1640  to  the  commencement  of  th- 
Protectorate  in  1653,  affected  even  the  ancient 
academical  and  civic  endowments;  and  the  two 
Universities,  the  noble  foundations  of  Edward 
VI.,  and  the  public  seminaries  instituted  i» 
London  and  other  great  centres  by  priy 
munificence,  suffered  a  common  paralysis 

The  alliance  between  the  Church  and  i 
schools  was  one  formed  or  developed  at  a 
period  of  exceptional  difficulty  and  pressure; 
but  even  when  the  immediate  necessity  for 
such  a  bond  existed  no  longer,  and  affairs  in 
England  had  returned  to  their  normal  state, 
the  clergy  saw  too  clearly  the  importance  of 


and  Schoolmasters.  191 

the  hold  which  they  had  gained  on  the  national 
training  and  thought  to  allow  education  to  pass 
back,  farther  than  was  avoidable,  under  lay 
control. 

In  the  time  of  the  Commonwealth,  and  when 
Cromwell  assumed  the  supreme  authority,  there 
were  all  over  the  country,  throughout  England 
and  Wales,  men  in  holy  orders  and  in  the  en- 
joyment of  benefices  who  combined  with  their 
sacerdotal  functions,  as  many  do  still,  the  duties 
of  schoolmasters  and  lecturers.  Doubtless, 
s<  among  them  there  were  some  fairly  qualified 
for  the  trust  which  they  received  and  under- 
took ;  but  the  majority  is  alleged,  in  an  authen- 
tic official  document  before  me  of  1654,  to 
have  been  far  otherwise.  This  State-paper  is 

lied   "  An   Ordinance   for    the   Ejection   of 

indalous,  Ignorant,  and  Insufficient  Minis- 
ers  and  Schoolmasters,"  and  wras  published  in 
the  autumn  of  the  year  above  named. 

Two  singular  features  it  unquestionably  pos- 
sesses :  the  intimate  association  between  the 
parson  and  the  pedagogue,  and  the  striking  pic- 
ture which  it  presents  to  our  view  of  the  lax  and 
profligate  condition  of  the  class  which  Cromwell 


192  Schools,  School-Books, 

and  his  advisers  saw  thus  clothed  with  the  two- 
fold responsibility  of  mental  and  spiritual  tuition. 

The  points  on  which  the  Commissioners  of 
the  Protectoral  Government  were  authorised  to 
inform  themselves,  and  to  exercise  the  discretion 
vested  in  them  by  the  ordinance,  reveal  a  very 
unsatisfactory  and  corrupt  state  of  things,  and 
the  existence  of  abuses  for  which  neither  the 
Civil  War  nor  the  Republican  administration  can 
be  thought  to  have  been  answerable.  There  is 
scarcely  a  vice  or  irregularity  which  is  not  named 
or  implied  in  the  instructions  delivered  to  the 
Commission;  and  the  encouragement  of  "Whit- 
son-ales,Wakes,Morris-Dances,Maypoles,Stage- 
plays,  or  such  like  licentious  practices,"  strikes 
one  as  relatively  a  very  venial  offence  against 
good  morals  and  professional  decorum.  But 
the  antipathy  to  sports  and  dramatic  exhibitions 
was  an  inheritance  from  the  more  rigid  Puritans, 
and  the  Articles  of  Inquiry  in  the  archidiaconal 
visitations  of  this  period  never  forgot  such  pro- 
fane infringements  of  clerical  morality. 

The  persons  who  were  selected  to  sit  on  these 
committees  for  the  several  urban  and  provincial 
districts  included  many  God-fearers  of  the  pre- 


and  Schoolmasters.  193 

vailing  type;  but  at  the  same  time  the  choice 
was  evidently  made  with  some  judgment  and 
impartiality,  and  the  printed  lists  exhibit  a  not- 
able proportion  of  divines  and  others  not  likely 
to  sanction  or  recommend  too  violent,  a  course. 

In  fact,  so  considerate  wras  the  temper  of  the 
Administration  itself,  that  an  express  proviso 
was  inserted  in  the  ejecting  ordinance,  by 
which  some  of  the  stipend  of  the  cure  was  to 
be  set  apart,  where  the  minister  and  school- 
master was  judged  incompetent,  for  the  support 
of  his  family. 

Samuel  Harmar,  in  his  Vox  Populi,  or  Glou- 
cestershire's Desire,  1642,  represents  the  wrant 
of  proper  maintenance  for  teachers,  although 
many  persons  of  moderate  resources  were  will- 
ing to  contribute  liberally  to  the  object;  to  the 
burden  on  families  by  reason  of  the  gratuitous 
instruction  of  children,  who,  if  they  were  but  in 
the  way  of  earning  even  twopence  a  day,  might 
help  themselves  and  their  parents,whereas  they 
wasted  their  time  in  playing  about  the  streets, 
and  acquired  the  habit  of  swearing  and  other 
immoral  practices.  The  restriction  of  educa- 
tional management,  for  the  most  part,  to  the 

N 


194      Schools  and  Schoolmasters. 

clergy  accounts  for  the  dearth  of  literature  shed- 
ding real  and  valuable  light  on  the  condition  of 
the  young  and  the  state  of  schools  in  very  early 
days ;  and  Har mar's  pamphlet  is  principally 
occupied  with  vapid  theological  ineptitudes. 
His  main  proposal  was  excellent;  it  declared 
for  the  establishment  of  schoolmasters  in  every 
parish  throughout  the  country ;  but  even  this 
was  merely  what  Knox  and  his  supporters  had 
long  before  advocated,  and  partly  accomplished, 
in  Scotland. 

There  is  a  little  volume  by  Richard  Croft, 
Vicar  of  Stratford-on-Avon,  being  a  sermon 
preached  by  him  at  the  opening  of  the  Free 
School  of  Feckenham  in  1696,  throughout  the 
sixty-eight  pages  of  which  there  is  not  an  iota 
worthy  of  citation,  nor  a  hint  serviceable  to  my 
inquiry.  How  different  it  might  have  been,  had 
a  layman  been  the  writer  ! 


(    195    ) 


CHAPITRE   XIII. 

Female  education  — Women  of  quality  taught  at  home- 
General  illiteracy  of  the  sex— Strong  clerical  contro1 
—  Ignorance  of  the  rudiments  of  knowledge  among 
girls  — Shakespear's  daughters— Goldsmith's  Poems  for 
Young  Ladies  —  Rise  of  the  Ladies'  School —Political 
importance  of  the  training  of  women. 

I.  THE  neglect  of  female  education  in  the 
United  Kingdom  down  to  a  recent  date  pro- 
ceeded from  an  absence  of  any  adequate^  or 
organisable  machinery  for  the  purpose,  and  from 
the  complete  monopoly  of  learning  by  men  in 
early  times.  In  Scotland  this  mischief  was  re- 
medied to  a  certain  extent  much  sooner  than  in 
England,  owing  to  the  institution  of  Academies, 
where  both  sexes  received  instruction  under  one 
roof  from  the  same  masters;  and  this  circum- 
stance may  help  to  explain  the  general  superio- 
rity of  the  Scots,  within  certain  limits,  to  the 


196  Schools,  School-Books, 

Southern  Britons  in  this  respect,  the  better  up- 
bringing of  the  mother  communicating  itself  to 
her  children. 

Common  academies  for  boys  and  girls  were 
not  wholly  unknown  in  England,  however,  but 
they  were  of  very  rare  occurrence,  and  have  now 
become  still  rarer,  as  they  barely  exist  at  all 
except  as  dame-schools. 

Now-a-days,  of  course,  the  most  elaborate 
and  costly  apparatus  is  provided  for  the  mental 
cultivation  and  training  of  girls  of  all  ranks; 
and  the  daughter  of  a  citizen  may  acquire  ac- 
complishments which  were  long  beyond  the 
reach  of  daughters  of  kings.  Formerly  the 
lower  classes  of  females  remained  as  illiterate 
as  the  corresponding  rank  of  men,  and  the 
studies  of  the  gentlewoman  were  superintended 
by  her  parents  and  her  tutor  or  her  governess. 
But  in  the  Middle  Ages,  and  long  after  the  re- 
vival of  learning,  the  only  persons  capable  of 
conducting  the  education  of  a  lady  who  had 
emerged  from  the  nursery  and  passed  the  rudi- 
mentary stage  were  ecclesiastics;  and  the  lay- 
men who  gradually  qualified  themselves  for  the 
task,  such  as  Ascham  and  Buchanan,were  scho- 


and  Schoolmasters  197 

lars  of  a  scarce  type,  who  had  gained  their  pro- 
ficiency in  the  gymnasia  and  universities  of 
Italy,  Germany,  or  France.  The  Italian  influence 
was  doubtless  the  earliest,  but  the  German  was 
the  most  powerful,  and  has  proved  the  most 
lasting. 

In  France  from  a  very  remote  period  the 
dame-school  appears  to  have  existed  in  some 
measure  and  form,  for  a  fourteenth -century 
sculpture,  already  mentioned  in  the  remarks  on 
scholastic  discipline,  depicts  an  establishment 
of  this  kind — a  petty  school  for  boys  kept  by  a 
woman.  If  there  was  any  such  thing  among  us. 
I  have  met  with  no  record  of  it ;  but  the  prac- 
tice, from  the  early  intimacy  between  those 
countries,  would  be  more  apt  to  find  its  way 
first  of  all  from  the  French  into  Scotland. 

To  such  as  have  had  under  their  eyes  the 
letters  and  other  literary  monuments  which  re- 
veal to  us  the  condition  of  the  more  cultivated 
section  of  the  English  female  community  in  the 
old  days,  it  seems  superfluous  to  insist  on  the 
strange  ignorance  of  the  prindpia  of  knowledge, 
and  on  the  fallow  state  of  the  intellectual  facul- 
ties which  these  evidences  establish.  The  Pas- 


198  Schools,  School-Books, 

ton  and  Plump  ton  Correspondence,  Mrs.  Green's 
Letters  of  Illustrious  Ladies,  and  Sir  Henry  Ellis's 
three  Series  of  Original  Letters,  may  perhaps  be 
quoted  as  affording  an  insight  into  the  present 
aspect  of  th?.  question  before  us;,  and  I  think 
that  the  most  striking  proofs  of  the  inatten- 
tion to  female  culture  in  this  country  are  to 
be  found  in  documents  previous  to  the  Refor- 
mation, when  the  influence  brought  to  bear 
on  the  sex  was  almost  exclusively  monastic  or 
clerical. 

The  great  political  and  religious  movement 
which  Henry  VIII.  was  enabled  by  circum- 
stances to  carry  through  undoubtedly  imparted 
a  large  share  of  lay  feeling  and  prejudice  to  the 
educational  system ;  and  this  tendency  was  pro- 
moted and  strengthened  during  the  short  reign 
of  Edward  VI.  by  the  foundation  of  chartered 
schools  throughout  the  kingdom  for  the  instruc- 
tion of  youth  in  grammar  and  other  primordial 
matters. 

II.  But  the  progress  thus  made  did  not  sen- 
sibly affect  the  other  sex.  Girls  still  depended, 
as  a  rule,  on  the  old  methods  and  channels  of 


and  Schoolmasters.  199 

learning;  the  arts  of  reading,  writing,  and  arith- 
metic formed  the  ordinary  routine  and  limit? 
unless  an  acquaintance  with  French,  or  even 
with  Italian,  happened  to  be  added  as  a  special 
accomplishment.  Very  occasionally  a  maiden  of 
studious  character  was  permitted  to  avail  herself 
of  the  tutor  maintained  at  home  for  her  brothers, 
as  was  the  case  of  the  Honourable  Mrs.  North, 
a  younger  daughter  of  Lord  North  of  Kirtling, 
who  learned  Latin  and  Greek  in  this  manner ; 
and  from  Margaret  Roper  to  Mrs.  Somerville, 
or  indeed  in  the  cases  adduced  by  Ballard  in 
his  Memoirs  of  Learned  Ladies,  there  were  from 
time  to  time  even  in  the  old  days  splendid  ex- 
ceptions to  the  prevailing  lowr  level  of  female 
culture.  But  under  any  circumstances,  until  the 
period  arrived  when  ladies  were  competent  to 
undertake  the  tuition  of  ladies,  all  these  matters 
necessarily  devolved,  in  the  first  place,  on  the 
mother,  and  finally  on  a  preceptor,  who  was 
necessarily  a  man,  and  most  probably  in  holy 
orders.  His  contribution  to  the  development 
of  character  was  exceedingly  preponderant, and 
was  beyond  doubt  a  most  important  factor  in 
maintaining  and  extending  the  power  of  the 


200  Schools,  School-Books, 

Church,  and  indemnifying  the  clergy  for  the 
direct  political  influence  of  which  the  Reforma- 
tion dispossessed  them. 

The  Ladies'  School  or  College  may  be  con- 
sidered a  product  of  the  acute  political  distem- 
pers which  accompanied  the  Ci\7il  War.  Mis- 
tress Bathsua  Makins,  who  had  been  governess 
to  one  of  the  daughters  of  Charles  I.— the  Prin- 
cess Elizabeth  —  set  up,  after  the  fall  of  the 
King,  an  establishment  at  Putney,  to  which 
Evelyn  mentions  that  he  paid  a  visit  in  com- 
pany with  some  ladies  on  the  17th  May  1649; 
but  I  find  no  reference  to  this  institution  in 
Lysons.  A  similar  case  existed  somewhat  later 
at  Highgate ;  and  the  admirers  of  Charles  and 
Mary  Lamb,  at  least,  do  not  require  to  be  told 
that  in  the  little  volume  called  "Mrs.  Leicester's 
School,"  1809,  there  are  some  interesting  hints, 
both  historical  and  autobiographical,  in  relation 
to  the  old-fashioned  seminary  at  Amwell.  But, 
as  a  rule,  these  agents  in  our  later  civilisation 
and  social  refinement,  important  as  they  were, 
have  left  behind  them  few,  if  any,  traces  of  their 
existence  and  management.  They  bred  those 
who  were  content  to  become,  in  course  of  time, 


and  Schoolmasters.  201 

the  wives  and  mothers  of  England,  and  to  study 
the  arts  of  domestic  life.  In  such  are  centred 
the  strength  and  glory  of  the  country;  but  their 
careers,  like  "  the  short  and  simple  annals  of 
the  poor,"  have  escaped  literary  commemo- 
ration. 

u  A  Gentleman  of  Cambridge,"  as  he  styles 
himself  on  the  title  of  an  English  adaptation  of 
the  Abbe  d'Ancourt's  Lady's  Preceptor,  1743^ 
defines  the  qualifications  then  thought  neces- 
sary and  adequate  for  a  young  gentlewoman. 
He  does  not  go  beyond  a  thorough  knowledge 
of  English,  an  acquaintance  with  French,  and 
Italian,  a  familiarity  with  arithmetic  and  ac- 
counts, and  the  mastery  of  a  good  handwriting; 
and  yet  how  few  probably  reached  this  mode- 
rate standard  a  century  and  a  half  ago— nay, 
how  few  reach  it  now ! 

In  the  time  of  the  early  Stuarts,  the  training 
of  girls  in  English  country  towns,  if  it  is  to  be 
augured  from  that  of  the  Shakespears  at  Strat- 
ford, even  where  the  parents  were  in  good  cir- 
cumstances and  the  father  a  man  of  literary 
tastes  and  occupations,  was  still  extremely  pri- 
mitive and  scanty.  The  poet's  elder  daughter, 


202          Schools,   School-Book,^, 

Susanna,  seems  to  have  just  contrived  to  write, 
or  rather  print,  her  name ;  but  Judith  used  a 
mark,  and  Mrs.  Quiney,  whose  son  became 
Judith's  husband,  did  the  same. 

Both  the  Ouineys  and  the  Shakespears  were 
persons  of  substance  and  of  local  consideration; 
and  in  this  case,  at  any  rate,  the  explanation 
seems  to  be  that  such  ignorance  was  usual,  and 
did  not  prejudicially  affect  the  position  and  pro- 
spects of  a  gentlewoman. 

The  institution  in  England  of  elementary 
schools  for  girls  only  dates  back  to  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  the  Restoration ;  but  the  number 
of  establishments  long  remained,  doubtless,very 
limited,  and  the  scheme  of  instruction  equally 
naiTOTV.  The  frontispiece  to  Anthony  Huish's 
Key  to  the  Grammar  School,  1670,  presents  us 
with  an  interesting  interior  in  the  shape  of  a 
girls'  school,  where  the  mistress  is  seated  at  a 
desk  surrounded  by  female  pupils. 

Goldsmith's  Poems  for  Young  Ladies,  u Devo- 
tional, Moral,  and  Entertaining,"  1767,  partly 
arose  out  of  Dr.  Fordyce's  Sermons  for  Young 
Women.  The  editor  assures  his  fair  readers  that 
the  Muse  in  this  case  is  not  a  syren,  but  a  friend; 


and  Schoolmasters.  203 

and  there  is  plenty  of  the  religious  element  in 
the  volume.  But  there  are,  on  the  other  hand, 
extracts  from  Pope's  Homer,  stories  from  Ovid 
and  Virgil,  Addison's  Letter  from  Italy,  and  a 
selection  from  Gollins's  Oriental  Eclogues.  The 
source  from  which  it  came  was  a  guarantee 
that  its  pages  would  be  agreeably  and  sensibly 
leavened  with  matters  not  divine;  it  surpasses 
the  average  intellectual  nutriment  provided  foi 
women  a  century  ago.  Dr.  Goldsmith  was  a 
decided  improvement  on  Dr.  Watts,  and  he 
could  scarcely  escape  from  being  so,  whether  he 
offered  them  his  own  poetical  compositions,  or, 
as  in  the  present  case,  merely  exercised  his 
judgment  in  selecting  from  the  works  of  others. 
No  one  can  object  to  Pope's  Messiah  or  his  Uni- 
versal Prayer,  which  constitute  the  prominent 
features  in  the  devotional  section,  when  they  are 
in  such  excellent  company  as  Gay,  Swiffe,  and 
Thomson.  But  there  is  nothing  in  this  volume 
to  have  prevented  the  editor  offering  a  copy  to 
either  of  the  vicar's  daughters. 

The  universal  and  unchanging  aim  of  the 
ecclesiastical  authority  is  manifestly  temporal, 
and  Henri  VIII.  and  his  coadjutors,  and  their 


204          Schools,  Sahool-Beoks] 

immediate  successors  in  the  foundation  of  Pro- 
testantism, acted  wisely  in  making  it  part  of  their 
scheme  to  furnish  the  realm  with  public  semi- 
naries based  on  an  improved  footing  in  the 
earliest  endowed  grammar  schools,  which  set 
the  example  to  private  individuals  and  corporate 
bodies. 

These  schools,  which,  as  we  know,  had  been 
preceded— and  doubtless  suggested  too— by  that 
at  Magdalen  College,  Oxford,  and  others  framed 
on  a  humbler  scale  or  (like  the  City  of  London 
and  St.  Paul's)  under  different  auspices,  opened 
the  way  to  a  partial  secularisation  of  teaching 
throughout  England.  The  preceptors  employed 
were  more  often  than  not  academical,  unbene- 
ficed graduates  with  a  certain  clerical  bent;  but 
the  Statutes  laid  down  rules  for  the  management 
of  the  Charity  and  for  the  limitation  of  the  sub- 
jects to  betaught;andtheschemewasassuredly 
at  the  outset,  and  continued  down  to  the  last 
thirty  or  forty  years — in  fact,  within  the  recol- 
lection of  the  present  writer — so  narrow  and 
imperfect,  that  it  supplied  what  would  now  be 
regarded  as  the  mere  groundwork  of  a  genteel 
education. 


and  Schoolmasters.  205 

III.  But  a  farther  and  still  more  important 
step  toward  the  emancipation  of  scholastic  eco- 
nomy and  discipline  from  Church  control  was 
taken  when,  first  in  Scotland,  and  subsequently, 
and  also  in  a  more  limited  degree,  in  England, 
after  the  union  of  the  kingdoms,  proprietary 
establishments  were  opened  for  boys  or  girls 
only,  or  for  boys  and  girls,  where  the  religious 
instruction,  instead  of  being,  as  under  the 
archaic  conventual  and  Romish  system,  the 
primary  feature,  became  a  mere  item  on  the 
prospectus,  like  Geography  or  History.  This 
was  the  commencement  of  an  entrance  upon 
modern  lines,  and  struck  a  fatal  blow  at  the 
monastic  and  academical  ideas  of  instruction, 
by  widening  the  bias  and  range  of  studies, 
and  liberating  the  intellect  from  religious  tram- 


The  success  and  multiplication  of  these  new 
institutions  obliged  the  old  endowments  to  re- 
form themselves,  and  to  meet  the  demands  of 
the  age  ;  and  the  pressure  was  augmented,  of 
course,  by  the  concurrent  rise  of  large  public 
gymnasia  of  a  novel  stamp,  as  well  as  by  the 
development  of  some  of  the  already  existing 


206          Schools,  School-Books, 

institutions  conformably  to  the  great  changes  in 
political  and  social  life. 

The  proprietary  system,  which  had  started 
by  adopting,  as  a  rule,  the  mixed  method,  or 
rather  by  the  reception  of  pupils  of  both  sexes 
under  the  same  roof,  was  eventually,  and,  ex- 
cept so  far  as  dame-schools  were  concerned, 
finally  modified  in  favour  of  the  dual  .plan ^ 
and  independent  colleges  for  young  gentlemen 
and  for  young  ladies  were  the  result. 

In  these  latter  the  drift  is  certainly  more  and 
more  lay;  and  as  knowledge  and  culture  spread, 
and  the  influence  and  fruits  of  masculine 
thought  make  themselves  more  and  more  ap- 
preciable, the  Church  in  England  will  gradu- 
ally loosen  its  grasp  of  the  national  intellect, 
and  will  probably  owe  to  the  higher  education 
of  women  its  collapse  and  downfall. 

The  ladies  of  England  have  propped  up 
the  tottering  edifice  long  enough,  and  no  one 
whose  opinion  is  worth  entertaining  will  lament 
the  inevitable  issue.  But  whether  the  conse- 
quences of  this  vital  movement  will  be  other- 
wise beneficial,  ithas  scarcely  yet,  perhaps, been 
in  active  operation  a  sufficient  time  to  enable 


and  Schoolmasters.  207 

us  to  judge.  If  it  involves  the  sacrifice  in  any 
important  measure  of  feminine  refinement  and 
dependence,  we  shall  be  forced  to  confess  that 
the  help  to  be  rendered  by  our  daughters  and 
grand-daughters  to  the  cause  of  intellectual  en- 
franchisement and  victory  will  have  been  bought 
at  a  cruel  price. 

As  the  o'ld  foundations  discovered  it  to  be 
imperative  to  comply  with  the  growing  philoso- 
phical temper  in  order  to  enable  them  to  exist 
side  by  side  with  the  improved  types  of  school 
and  teacher,  so  the  successful  conduct  of  ladies' 
colleges  will  become  impossible  in  the  future 
unless  that  liberality  of  doctrine  and  sentiment 
in  all  matters  connected  with  theology  which 
breathes  around  them  and  us  is  cordially  re- 
cognised. 

A  spirit  of  disaffection  to  clerical  guidance 
and  clerical  imposts  has  for  some  time  shown 
itself  in  Great  Britain  among  those  who  are 
becoming,  in  the  natural  course  of  events, 
husbands,  fathers,  and  ratepayers ;  the  revolt 
of  the  other  sex  has  also  commenced ;  and 
the  wise  initiative  of  the  Board  School  in  ex- 
cluding the  Bible  and  Catechism-  from  their 


Schools  and  Schoolmasters.       208 

programme  must  be  ultimately  obeyed  by  every 
school  in  the  three  kingdoms. 

The  Bible  is  for  scholars,  not  for  school-folk; 
and,  as  Jeremy  Bentham  demonstrated  nearly  a 
century  ago,  the  Catechism  is  trash. 


(    209    ) 


XIV. 


The  Abacus  or  A.  B.  C.— Its  construction  and  use—  The 
printed-  A.  B.  C.— The  first  Protestant  one  (1553)  -Spell- 
ing-books—Anecdotes of  the  A.  B.  C.  —  Propria  quos 
Maribus  and  Johnny  quos  Genus  —  The  Catechism  and 
Primer. 


I.  THE  manner  in  which  the  earliest  Abaci 
were  constructed  and  applied  is  precisely  one 
of  those  points  which,  in  the  absence  of  speci- 
mens of  remote  date  and  documentary  infor- 
mation as  to  their  form  and  use,  we  have  to 
elucidate,  as  far  as  possible,  from  casual  allu- 
sions or  internal  testimony.  The  most  ancient 
woodcuts  representing  a  school  interiordisplay 
the  method  in  which  the  master  and  pupils 
worked  together;  but  here  the  latter  appear,  as 
I  have  stated  elsewhere,  to  reiterate  what  their 
teacher  reads  from  a  book,  or,  in  other  words, 

o 


210  Schools,  School-Books, 

the  scene  depicts  a  later  stage  in  the  educational 
course, 

In  the  Jests  of  Scoyin,  a  popular  work  of  the 
time  of  Henry  VIII. ,  and  probably  reliable  as  a 
faithful  portraiture  of  the  habits  and  notions  of 
the  latter  half  of  the  fifteenth  and  opening  de- 
cades of  the  following  century,  one  of  the  sec- 
tions relates  "How  a  Husbandman  put  his  son 
to  school  with  Scogin.'1  From  the  text  it  is 
plain  that  the  lad  was  very  backward  in  his 
studies,  or  had  commenced  them  unusually  late, 
considering  that  it  was  the  farmer's  ambition  to 
procure  his  admission  into  holy  orders.  "The 
slovenly  boy,"  we  are  told,  "  would  begin  to 
learn  his  A.  B.  G.  Scogin  did  give  him  a  lesson 
of  nine  of  the  first  letters  of  A.  B.  G.,  and  he 
was  nine  days  in  learning  of  them ;  and  when 
he  had  learned  the  nine  Christ-cross-row  letters, 
the  good  scholar  said,  c  am  ich  past  the  worst 
now?  ' ' 

The  important  feature  in  this  passage  is  the 
reference  to  the  Christ-cross-row,  which  con- 
tained the  nine  letters  of  the  alphabet  from  A 
to  I  in  the  form  of  the  Gross.  The  time  con- 
sumed in  this  particular  instance  in  the  acquisi- 


and  Schoolmasters.  211 

tion  of  a  portion  of  the  rudiments  is,  of  course, 
ascribable  to  a  pleasant  hyperbole,  or  to  the 
scholar's  phenomenal  density;  but  the  Abacus  or 
Christ-cross-row  was,  no  doubt,  the  first  step  in 
the  ladder,  and  although  it  was  superseded  by 
the  Horn-book  and  the  Primer,  it  did  not  sub- 
stantially disappear  from  use  in  petty  schools 
till  the  present  century.  Its  shape  and  functions, 
however,  underwent  a  material  change,  and 
instead  of  being  employed  as  a  medium  for 
grounding  children  in  the  Accidence,  it  became 
a  vehicle  for  arithmetical  purposes,  and  re- 
sembled a  slate  in  form  and  dimensions,  con- 
sisting of  a  small  oblong  wooden  frame  fitted 
with  rows  of  balls  of  wood  or  bone  strung  on 
transverse  wires.  To  those  who,  like  the  pre- 
sent writer,  saw  this  apparatus  in  common  use 
to  induct  the  young  into  the  art  of  counting,  its 
pedigree  was  naturally  unknown.  It  was  an 
evolution  from  the  contrivance  which  Scogin 
put  into  the  hands  of  the  country  bumpkin  whom 
he  was  engaged  to  prepare  for  the  priesthood, 
and  who,  as  we  learn  from  subsequent  passages 
in  these  Anecdotes,  was  actually  ordained  a 
deacon  within  a  limited  period. 


212          Schools,  School-Book*, 

II.  To  the  Abacus,  prior  to  the  Reformation, 
was  added  the  printed  A.  B.  C.  accompanied 
by  prayers  and  a  metrical  version  of  the  Deca- 
logue, and  in  1553  appeared  the  first  Protestant 
A.  B.  G.  and  Catechism  for  the  use  of  schools 
and  the  young.  It  is  after  this  date  and  the 
accession  of  Elizabeth  that  we  find  a  marked 
and  permanent  stimulus  given  to  elementary 
literature;  and  the  press  from  1553  onward 
teemed  with  A.  B.  G.'s  of  all  sorts  ;  as,  for  in- 
stance, "  an  a.  b.  c.  for  children,  with  syllables, 
1558 ; "  "  an  a.  b.  c.  inJLatin,"  1559;  "  the  battle 
of  A.  B.  G.,"  1586;  u  the  horn  a.  b.  c.  1587;  " 
and  even  the  title  itself  grew  popular,  not  only 
for  manuals  of  other  kinds,  but  for  publishers' 
signs  and  ballads.  There  was  "  the  aged  man's 
A.  B.  G.,"  the  "Virgin's  A.  B.  G.,"  and  "  the 
young  man's  A.  -B.  G." 

Subsequently  to  the  A.  B.  G.  of  1553,  there 
seems  to  be  nothing  actually  extant  of  this 
nature  till  we  come  to  The  Pathway  to  Read- 
ing, or  the  newest  spelling  A.  B.  C.  of  Thomas 
Johnson,  1590,  which  I  have  not  been  able  to 
inspect,  but  as  to  which  there  was  a  litigation 
between  two  publishers  in  the  following  year, 


and  Schoolmasters.  213 

seeming  to  shew  its  popularity  and  a  brisk 
demand  for  copies. 

A  few  years  later  (1610)  there  is  A  New  Book 
of  Spelling,  with  Syllables,  a  series  of  alphabets, 
followed  by  the  vowels,  alphabetical  arrange- 
ments of  syllables,  and  remarks  on  vowels,  in 
the  course  of  which  the  writer  furnishes  us 
with  an  explanation  of  the  virtue  and  force  of 
the  final  e  in  such  monosyllables  as  Babe. 

From  vowels  he  proceeds  to  the  diphthong, 
where  he  animadverts  on  the  abuse  of  the  wfor 
the  u.  He  then  presents  us  with  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  the  Greed,  the  Decalogue,  &c.,  as  ortho- 
graphical theses. 

At  the  end  of  the  Scriptural  selections  we 
arrive  at  this  curious  heading :  "Certain  words 
devised  alphabetically  without  sense ,  which 
whosoever  will  take  the  pains  to  learn,  he  may 
read  at  the  first  sight  any  English  book  that  is 
laid  before  him."  These  words  are  divided  into 
two  classes, dissyllables  and  words  of  three  and 
four  syllables,  and  introduced  by  a  few7  lines  of 
introduction,  in  which  the  words  are  divided 
by  way  of  guidance. 

The   spelling-book  of  1610  was  printed  for 


214  Schools,  School-Books, 

the  Stationers'  Company,  by  which  it  had  been 
perhaps  taken  over;  and  as  the  Company  did 
not  usually  have  assigned  to  it  any  stock  except 
old  copyrights,  there  is  little  doubt  that  there 
were  earlier  impressions.  At  any  rate,  it  is  a 
Shakespearian  volume,  and,  as  the  only  manual 
for  children  or  illiterate  adults  except  the  Pro- 
testant A.  B.  G.  of  1553,  it  becomes  interesting 
to  consider  that  the  great  poet  himself  may 
have  had  a  copy  in  his  hands  of  some  edition, 
if  at  least  his  scholastic  researches  ever  went 
beyond  the  Horn-book  and  the  Abacus. 

The  volume  may  be  regarded  as  a  pioneer  in 
the  direction  of  English  orthography  and  pro- 
nunciation ;  and  when  the  author  propounds 
that  you  might  proceed  from  his  pages  to  the 
Latin  tongue,  he  does  nothing  more  than  fol- 
low in  the  steps  of  all  teachers  of  that  time,  as 
well  as  of  every  other  age  and  country  down  to 
almost  yesterday. 

While  I  have  the  book  before  me,  it  may  be 
worth  while  to  transfer  to  these  pages  a  speci- 
men of  it  : — 

kach,  kech,  kich,  koch,  kuch, 
kash,  kesh,  kish,  kosh,  kush, 
kath,  keth,  kith,  koth,  kuth 


and  Schoolmasters.  215 

And  so  it  runs  through  the  alphabet.  In  the 
Lord's  Prayer  and  other  selections  the  syllables 
are  also  divided  for  the  convenience  and  ease 
of  the  learner. 

The  biographer  of  Dean  Colet  mentions  that 
Mr.  Stephen  Penton,  Principal  of  St.  Edmund's 
Hall,  Oxford,  in  the  days  of  Charles  II.,  publi- 
shed a  Horn-book  or  A.  B.  G.  for  children. 
This,  which  Knight  oddly  characterises  as  a 
piece  of  humble  condescension  on  the  part  of 
so  worthy  and  noted  a  man,  I  have  not  yet  seen. 

In  Russia  they  have,  or  had  very  lately,  the 
stchotijSii  kind  of  Abacus,  a  small  wooden  frame 
strung  with  horizontal  wires,  on  which  slide  a 
series  of  ivory  balls,  each  wire  representing  a 
certain  value  from  the  kopeck  upwards.  This 
piece  of  machinery  is  used  in  all  commercial 
transactions,  whether  they  take  place  in  shop, 
market,  counting-house,  or  bank ;  and  familia- 
rity and  practice  enable  the  parties  concerned 
to  calculate  the  amount  payable  or  receivable 
with  equal  ease  and  rapidity. 

There  is  a  similar  machine  in  use  among  the 
natives  of  British  India,  and  also  for  mercantile 
purposes,  not  as  a  vehicle  for  acquiring  the 
science  of  numbers  in  the  schools. 


216          Schools,  School-Books, 

III.  It  is  said  to  have  been  John  Rightwise, 
second  head-master  of  St.  Paul's,  and  son-in- 
law  of  Lily,  who  introduced  into  his  prede- 
cessor's book  the  Propria  quoe  Maribus  and 
As  in  Prozsenti,  to  wrhich  were  subsequently 
joined  the  Rules  of  Heteroclites  or  Irregular 
Nouns,  probably  digested  from  Whittinton  by 
Robertson  of  York.  This  last  section,  from 
the  commencing  words,  combined  perhaps 
with  the  Christian  name  of  Rightwise,  was  the 
origin  of  Johnny  quce  Genus. 

But  an  early  authority*  claims  for  Lily  him- 
self the  honour  of  having  written  the  Propria 
quo3  Maribus  and  As  in  Proesenti,  and  informs 
us  that  Rightwise  merely  published  them  with 
a  glossary. 

In  some  of  the  schools  the  course  seems  to 
have  been  to  commence  with  the  A.  B.  G.  and 
Catechism,  and  then  proceed  to  the  Primer. 
At  the  end  of  the  A.  B.  C.  of  1757  are  these 
lines  : — 

"  This  little  Catechism  learned 
by  heart  (for  so  it  ought), 
The  PRIMER  next  commanded  is 
for  children  to  be  taught.  " 

*  Introduction  to  Hayne's  Latin  Grammar,  1640. 


and  Schoolmasters.  217 

When  I  speak  here  of  the  Primer,  I  must  take 
care  to  distinguish  between  the  Service-book 
so  styled  and  the  Manual  for  the  young.  It  is 
singular  enough  that  the  most  ancient  which 
has  come  under  my  eyes  is  of  the  age  of  Eliza- 
beth, and  includes  not  only  the  Catechism,  but 
"the  notable  fairs  in  the  Calendar,"  as  matters 
"to  be  taught  unto  children." 

This  type  of  Primer  is  very  rare  till  \ve  ar- 
rive at  comparatively  modern  days.  The  mis- 
sion which  it  was  designed  to  fulfil  was  one 
precisely  calculated  to  hinder  its  transmission 
to  us. 

The  practice  of  printing  children's  books  on 
some  more  than  usually  substantial  material  is 
not  so  modern  as  may  be  supposed  ;  for  there 
is  an  A.  B.  C.  published  at  Higa  for  the  use  of 
the  German  pupils,  the  German  population  pre- 
ponderating there  over  the  Russian  or  Polish, 
on  paper  closely  resembling  linen,  and  of  a 
singularly  durable  texture ;  and  this  little 
volume  belongs  to  the  commencement  of  the 
last  century,  several  generations  before  such  a 
system  was  adopted  in  England. 

In  the  Preface  to  his  New  English  Grammar, 


218  Schools,  School-Books, 

1.810,  Hazlitt  complains  of  the  want  of  any  under- 
taking of  the  kind,  and  it  has  not  been  really 
supplied  till  our  own  day,  when  the  labours 
of  the  Philological  and  English  Text  Societies 
and  the  payment  of  increased  attention  to  Early 
English  Literature  prepared  the  way  to  re- 
form in  a  quarter  where  reform  was  so  sadly 
needed. 

The  same  writer,  while  edition  upon  edition 
of  the  famous  Grammar  of  Lindley  Murray  was 
pouring  from  the  press,  like  Hayley's  Triumphs 
of  Temper  and  Moore's  Loves  of  the  Angels,  ex- 
posed the  fallacies  of  the  system,  and  lamented 
the  mischief  done  by  such  erroneous  doctrines. 
Murray,  of  whose  lucubrations,  nowr  obsolete  to 
petrifaction,  sixty  issues  were  exhausted  bet- 
ween 1795  and  1859,  aimed  not  only  at  popular 
instruction,  but  at  literary  dignity  and  scientific 
eminence ;  for  during  a  portion  of  the  time 
while  his  star  was  in  the  ascendant  two  parallel 
texts,  a  literary  and  an  elementary  one,  were 
kept  in  print.  Looking  back  from  the  vantage- 
ground  which  it  is  our  privilege  to  occupy 
upon  this  phenomenon,  we  contemplate  it  not 
with  the  awe  inspired  by  a  mighty  ruin,  of  which 


and  Schoolmasters.  219 

the  remaining  fragments  are  a  gladdening  and 
proud  survival,  bud  with  a  feeling  of  amazement 
that  such  a  heresy  in  opinion  and  taste  should 
have  lived  so  long,  and  have  been  so  lately 
dissipated. 

The  hazy  ideas  of  the  old-fashioned  school- 
master on  this  particular  part  of  his  business  are 
brought  out  in  tolerably  prominent  relief  in  the 
reply  to  a  gentleman  who  had  expressed  to  Dr. 
Duncan  of  the  Ciceronian  Academy  at  Pimlico 
his  wish  that  his  son  might  learn  English  in  lieu 
of  Latin  Grammar.  "  Sir,  "  said  the  Doctor, 
"  Grammar  is  Grammar  all  the  world  over." 


(    220    ) 


XV. 

Ascham's  Schoolmaster  —  Richard  Mulcaster  —  The  tarliest 
Anglo-Latin  Dictionary — Ocland's  Ang.'orum  Proelia. 

I.  THE  Schoolmaster,  by  Roger  Ascham,  is  a 
work  so  celebrated  and  so  classical,and  has  been 
so  often  reprinted,  that  it  seems  almost  super- 
erogatory to  pass  any  remark  upon  its  character 
and  merits.  It  arose,  as  we  all  know,  out  of  a 
conversation  at  Windsor  in  1563  between  Sir 
Richard  Sackville,  Treasurer  of  the  Exchequer, 
and  the  author,  and  it  is  a  literary  treatise  rather 
than  a  technical  one.  Ascham  did  not  live  to 
see  it  in  type,  nor  was  his  patron  spared  to 
witness  its  completion  in  MS  ;  it  was  published 
in  1570  by  the  author's  widow,  and  dedicated 
to  Sir  William  Cecil,  who  was  one  of  the  party 
at  Windsor  when  the  idea  was  first  ventilated. 
The  opening  paragraphs  of  the  Preface,  where 


Schools  and  Schoolmasters.       221 

Ascham  describes  the  company  at  dinner,  and 
Sackvile  afterwards  drawing  him  aside,  and  lead- 
ing him  to  turn  his  thoughts  to  the  production 
of  such  a  book,  are  as  famous  and  unforgettable 
as  Latimer's  noble  and  touching  narrative  to  us, 
in  one  of  his  sermons  before  the  King,  of  his 
boyhood  and  the  obligations  under  which  he 
lay  to  his  father  for  sending  him  to  a  good 
school. 

Ascham's  Schoolmaster,  1^70,  is  a  volume,  as 
its  title  perhaps  may  import,  for  the  teacher 
indeed  rather  than  for  the  learner.  It  is  a 
manual  of  valuable  suggestions  and  counsels  for 
the  guidance  and  use  of  those  under  whose 
direction  the  course  of  school-work  was  carried 
out,  although  immediately  it  was  designed  for  the 
benefit  of  Mr.  Robert  Sackville,  the  deceased 
Treasurer's  grandson.  The  writer  confesses  his 
indebtedness  to  Sir  John  Cheke  and  to  Sturmius, 
among  the  moderns,  and  to  his  old  masters,  as 
he  calls  them,  Plato,  Aristotle,  and  Cicero. 

Sir  Richard  Sackville,  who  was  happily  instru- 
mental in  persuading  Ascham  to  undertake  the 
task,  told  him  that  he  had  found  the  disadvan- 
tage in  his  own  case  of  an  imperfect  education; 


222  Schools,  School-Books, 

"  for  a  fond  scholemaster,"  quoth  he,  "  before  I 
was  fullie  fourtene  yeare  olde,draue  me  so,  with 
feare  of  beating,  from  all  loue  of  learninge,  as 
nowe,  when  I  know  what  difference  it  is  to  haue 
learninge,  and  to  haue  little  or  none  at  all,  I 
feele  it  my  greatest  greife,  and  finde  it  my 
greatest  hurte,  that  euer  came  to  me  ;  that  it 
was  my  so  ill  chance  to  light  vpon  so  lewde  a 
schoolmaster." 

Ascham  was  of  his  friend's  opinion  in  regard 
to  greater  clemency  and  patience  on  the  part  of 
teachers,  and  he  also  preferred  such  text-books 
as  Cicero  de  Officiis  to  the  Manuals  compiled  by 
Herman,  Whittinton,  and  the  rest  of  the  old 
school  of  English  grammarians.  The  passage 
in  the  Schoolmaster  where  the  author  narrates 
his  interview,  before  he  went  on  his  travels  into 
Germany,  with  Lady  Jane  Grey  at  her  father's 
house  in  Leicestershire,  is  familiar  enough;  it 
exhibits  a  converse  case,  so  far  as  the  severities 
of  school-teachers  are  concerned;  for  that  ami- 
able and  unfortunate  woman  found  her  only 
compensation  for  the  harshness  and  rigour  of 
her  parents  in  a  gentle  and  beloved  tutor, 
"  who,"  she  told  Ascham,  "teacheth  me  so  ient- 


and  Schoolmasters  223 

He,  so  pleasantlie,  with  such  faire  allurements 
to  learning,  that  I  thinke  all  the  tyme  nothing 
whiles  I  am  with  him." 

One  sees  that  Ascham,  while  loth  to  say  too 
much  on  such  a  topic,  did  not  cordially  relish 
the  old  translations  into  English  verse  of  some 
of  the  classics, even  when  the  translator  was  such 
a.  man  as  Surrey  or  Chaucer  ;  and  there  I  agree 
with  him,  and  indeed  I  think  that  many  more 
are  inclined  so  to  do. 

Richard  Mulcaster,  first  head-master  of  Mer- 
chant Taylors'  School,  and  for  several  years 
after  his  retirement  from  that  position  principal 
of  St.  Paul's,  was  the  author  of  two  works  of 
comparatively  slight  interest  and  importance  at 
the  present  day,  whatever  estimate  may  have 
been  formed  of  them  by  some  of  his  learned 
contemporaries.  Of  the  two  "  fruits  of  his 
writing,''  as  he  terms  them,  he  dedicated  the 
earlier,  "Positions,"  1581,  a  kind  of  introduc- 
tion to  the  matter,  to  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  the 
other.  "  The  First  Part  of  the  Elementary," 
1582,  to  Lord  Leicester,  in  two  rather  turgid 
and  verbose  epistles.  Bat  it  is  a  question 
whether  either  production  met  with  much  ap- 


224          Schools,  School-Books, 

plause  on  its  appearance,  though  ushered  into 
notice  under  such  influential  auspices ;  cer- 
tainly they  never  grew  popular  or  reached  a 
second  impression.  They  were  both  calculated 
for  the  guidance  of  teachers,  like  Ascham's 
Schoolmaster;  but  they  present  a  stiff  and 
didactic  frigidity,  which  is  absent  in  the 
famous  and  favourite  manual  of  his  predeces- 
sor, who  knew  how  to  make  us  the  partakers 
of  his  own  learning  in  a  more  agreeable  man- 
ner than  the  professional  pedagogue.  I  think 
it  very  possible  that  the  very  few  readers  which 
the  publications  of  Mulcaster  have  found  have 
arrived  at  the  conclusion  of  their  labour  with- 
out being  much  wiser  than  when  they  embarked 
in  it.  But,  of  the  two,  I  prefer  very  decidedly 
the  Positions,  which  are  written  in  a  more  natu- 
ral style,  and  contain  occasional  passages  of 
interest.  This  gentleman  lived  to  see  the  close 
of  the  long  reign  of  which  he  had  witnessed 
the  opening,  and  to  write  some  dull  verses  upon 
the  death  of  the  Queen. 

II.  The  early  teacher  and  his  pupils  enjoyed, 
when  the  typographical  art  had  been  applied 


and  Schoolmasters.  225 

to  the  production  of  educational  works  p^evi- 
ously  accessible  in  a  limited  number  of  MSS., 
the  considerable  advantage  of  books  of  refer- 
ence for  Latin,  Greek,  French,  and  eventually 
Italian  and  other  tongues.  Within  a  year  of 
each  other  (1499-1500),  the  Ortus  Vocabulorum 
and  the  Promptorius  Parvulorum  furnished  our 
schools,  so  far  as  Latin  was  concerned,  with 
two  excellent  lexicons,  both  formed  out  of  the 
best  compilations  of  the  kind  current  abroad. 
These  were  the  Ainsworth  and  Riddle  of  our 
ancestors,  who  resorted  to  them  where  the  re- 
quired information  was  not  forthcoming  in  the 
Primer  or  the  Delectus. 

Both  these  phrase-books  passed  through  a 
series  of  reprints  between  the  commencement 
and  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century.  The  for- 
mer purports  to  have  been  grounded  on  the 
Catholicon  of  Balbus,  1460,  the  Cornucopia  of 
Perottus,  the  Gemma  Vocabulorum,  and  the 
Medulla  Grammatices,  with  additions  by  As- 
censius.  The  Promptorius,  or,  as  it  is  also 
called  in  some  of  the  issues,  Promptuarium, 
appears  to  be  substantially  identical  with  the 
Medulla. 

p 


226  Schools,  School-Books, 

But  the  earliest  regular  Anglo-Latin  Dic- 
tionary in  our  literature  is  that  of  Sir  Thomas 
Elyot,  first  published  in  1538,  and  frequently 
reprinted  with  additions  by  others  from  a 
variety  of  English  and  foreign  sources,  until  it 
became  the  bulky  folio  known  a  COOPER'S 
THESAURUS.  Elyot,  the  first  compiler,  tells  us, 
in  the  dedication  to  Henry  VIII.  prefixed  to 
the  editio  princeps,  that  he  had  accomplished 
about  half  his  labour  when  it  reached  the  royal 
ear  through  Master  (subsequently  Sir)  Anthony 
Denny  that  he  had  such  a  project  in  hand  ; 
whereupon  the  King  caused  all  possible  facili- 
ties to  be  afforded  him,  and  the  books  in  the 
royal  library  to  be  open  to  his  inspection.  It 
is  hard  to  say  how  far  Elyot  flatters  his  sove- 
reign when  he  assures  him  that,  after  it  was  all 
done,  he  was  so  afraid  of  his  Lexicon  being 
faulty  and  imperfect,  that  he  felt  as  if  lie 
could  have  torn  the  MS.  to  pieces,  "had  not 
the  beames  of  your  royal  maiestie  entred 
into  my  harte,  by  remembraunce  of  the  corn- 
forte  whiche  I  of  your  grace  had  lately  re- 
ceyued." 

In  the  epistle  to  Henry  just  referred  to,  the 


and  Sekaolmasters.  227 

author  pays  a  tribute  to  the  encouragement 
which  he  had  experienced  from  Lord  Crom- 
well; and  in  the  British  Museum  is  the  copy 
presented  to  the  Lord  Privy  Seal,  with  a  holo- 
graph Latin  letter  prefixed,  in  which  hardly 
any  form  of  adulation  is  spared,  so  far  as  Crom- 
well's virtues,  magnanimity,  culture,  and  other 
cognate  qualities  are  concerned,  and  nothing 
is  said  about  him  being  secondary  to  royalty 
in  these  matters,  as  in  the  printed  inscription 
is  expressed.  But  much,  after  all,  is  to  be  for- 
given to  a  man  of  rank  who  in  those  days  chose 
to  consume  his  time,  as  Elyot  did,  in  the  pur- 
suit of  letters. 

The  plan  of  the  work  is  familiar  enough, 
first,  through  the  later,  impressions,  which  are 
among  the  commonest  volumes  in  Early  Eng- 
lish literature ;  and,  secondly,  from  the  fact 
that  the  principle  on  which  it  is  constructed  is 
similar  to  that  of  Ainsworth  and  others.  The 
main  difference  seems  to  be  where  certain 
Latin  words,  by  an  intelligible  survival,  con- 
inued  in  Elyot' s  day  to  bear  a  meaning  which 
subsequently  grew  obsolete ;  as,  for  instance, 
in  the  case  of  Aviarium,  "a  thycke  wodde 


2C28          Schools,   School-Books, 

without  waye,"  although  he  at  the  same  time 
adds  the  ordinary  acceptation. 

Still  the  credit  remains  with  Elyot,  of  course, 
of  having  supplied  a  model  for  many  succeed- 
ing lexicographers  and  phraseologists  ;  and  if 
we  turn,  for  example,  to  the  Dictionary  for 
Children,  by  John  Withals,  1553,  or  the  Mani- 
pulus  Vocabulorum  of  Levins,  1571,  we  see  that 
the  general  plan  is  similar.  Elyot,  in  fact,  got 
rid  of  the  tiresome  and  perplexing  arrangement 
which  renders  the  books  of  reference  and  in- 
struction prior  to  his  day,  like  the  Promptorius 
and  the  Eclair  cissement  de  la  langue  Frangoi&e, 
so  uninviting  to  consult. 

Save  in  respect  to  development  and  exten- 
sion, there  is  no  substantial  difference,  in  fact, 
between  the  dictionaries  of  Elyot  and  Littleton 
or  of  Littleton  and  Ainsworth.  The  general 
plan  is  the  same,  whereas  in  some  of  the  early 
lexicons  the  arrangement  is  so  obscure  and  de- 
fective as  to  render  them  comparatively  useless 
for  practical  purposes.  The  old  Ortus  Vocabu- 
lorum, one  of  these  archaic  works  of  reference, 
had  been  largely  formed  out  of  the  Cornucopia 
of  Perottus,  and  Cooper  owed  very  considerable 


and  Schoolmasters.  229 

obligations  to  the  Lexicon  of  Stephanus,  which 
lie  was  censured  by  a  critic  of  his  day  for  not 
properly  acknowledging. 

The  Short  Dictionary  for  Children  by  Withals, 
already  specified,  supplied  the  obvious  need 
for  a  more  portable  work  than  either  Elyot  or 
Cooper.  It  met  with  a  cordial  response  from 
the  constituency  to  which  it  appealed,  and  was 
reprinted,  with  large  additions  and  improve- 
ments, by  successive  editors  down  to  I  he  time 
of  Charles  I. 

Littleton,  who  brought  out  his  Dictionary  in 
1678,  was  Rector  of  Chelsea.  He  includes  the 
barbarous  Latin  for  the  first  time. 

Robert  Ainsworth,  whose  famous  Latin  Dic- 
tionary belongs  to  the  reign  of  George  II., 
having  been  first  printed  in  1736,  planned  his 
enterprise  on  a  sensible  and  enduring  basis,  and 
earned  for  himself  the  reputation  of  a  classic 
and  a  type.  He  had  of  course  the  advantage 
of  all  the  improvements  of  Elyot,  Cooper,  and 
Littleton,  besides  the  numerous  other  minor 
lexicographers, of  whom  he  supplies  an  interest- 
ing chronological  account  in  his  preface  ;  but 
his  substantial  quarto  volume,  "  designed  for 


230  Schools,  School-Books, 

the  use  of  the  British  Nations,"  was  a  clear  ad- 
vance on  its  precursors.  He  gives  not  only  the 
Latin-English  and  English-Latin  appellatives, 
the  Christian  names  of  men  and  women,  the 
proper  names  of  places,  the  ancient  Latin  names 
of  places,  and  the  more  modern  names,  but  the 
Roman  calendar,  the  Roman  coins,  weights  and 
measures,  and  ancient  law-terms.  Of  the  pre- 
ceding workers  in  the  same  field,  whom  he 
commemorates,  he  may  very  well  have  known 
some  personally.  The  catalogue,  enriched  with 
biographical  particulars,  begins  with  the  Prom  p- 
'luar'uun  Parvulorum,  and  closes  with  Elisha 
Coles,  embracing  a  period  of  nearly  two  cen- 
turies. 

III.  The  Latin  Lexicon  was  an  indispensable 
vailc-utectnn  where  boys  had  to  translate  the 
classics  of  that  language  into  English  ;  arid  the 
taste  for  some  of  the  Roman  writers,  includ- 
ing Ovid,  so  far  from  declining,  appears  in  the 
time  of  Elizabeth  to  have  spread  in  schools. 
The  authors  at  whom  the  criticism  is  more  par- 
ticularly aimed  may  be  guessed  in  the  absence 
of  the  names;  but  the  clerical  party  about  1580, 


and  Schoolmasters.  231 

being  of  opinion  that  these  ancient  productions 
were  injurious  to  morality,  availed  themselves 
of  a  most  singularly  fortunate  opportunity  for 
substituting  a  work  which  should  be  to  Latin 
versification  what  Lily's  Grammar  was  to  Eng- 
lish accidence — a  standard  and  a  model. 

A  year  or  two  prior  to  the  discovery  of  this 
pernicious  influence,  Christopher  Ocland  had 
printed  a  metrical  narrative  in  doggerel  metre 
of  the  martial  achievements  of  the  English  people 
from  the  time  of  the  Plantagenets  down  to  that 
of  Elizabeth,  whom  he  places  before  Zenobia  ; 
and  this  gentleman  or  his  friends  had  sufficient 
influence  to  procure,  through  the  Lords  Com- 
missioners in  Causes  Ecclesiastical,  letters- 
patent  prescribing  the  use  of  his  Anglorum 
Predict  in  all  grammar-schools  in  England  and 
Wales  in  lieu  of  the  books  ofless  moral  authors. 
The  privilege,  dated  May  7, 1582,  was  accorded 
in  consideration  not  only  of  the  freedom  of 
Ocland's  volume  from  profligacy,  but  of  "  the 
quality  of  the  verse,"  —  an  encomium  quite 
seriously  intended,  in  whatever  degree  it  may 
strike  us  as  ironical. 

This  literary  gem,  which  was  to  supersede 


232      Schools  and  Schoolmasters. 

Virgil,  Ovid,  Homer,  and  the  rest  of  the  hea- 
thens, was  dedicated  to  Zenobia  by  the  worthy 
writer  in  some  lines  which  are  a  fair  sample  of 
the  "  quality  of  the  verse."  They  begin  :— - 

'   Regia  Nympha,  soli  (sic)  moderatrix  alma  Britanni, 

Quse  pace  et  vera  religione  nites, 
Qure  vit;o  mentis,  morum  &  candore  coruscans, 

Zenobiarn  vincis,  siqua  vel  ante  fuit." 

Such  was  the  Oclandian  Muse  which  the  Lords 
Commissioners  in  Causes  Ecclesiastical  ac- 
counted preferable  to  the  compositions  which 
were  the  glory  of  their  own  and  the  delight  of 
every  succeeding  age ! 

Despite  the  lofty  patronage  and  auspicious 
circumstances  under  which  the  Anglorum 
Prcelia  was  launched  on  its  proud  career,  the 
imbecility  of  the  whole  idea  appears  to  have 
been  promptly  appreciated;  and  the  "lascivious 
poets,"  whom  it  was  to  have  effaced,  con- 
tinued, and  to  this  day  continue,  uto  corrupt 
the  youth." 


(    233    ) 


XVI. 

Ben  Jonson  and  Shirley  writers  of  Grammars— Some  account 
of  the  former  —  Thomas  Hayne's  Latin  Grammar— A 
curious  anecdote  about  it. 


I.  THE  English  Grammar  inserted  among 
Ben  Jonson's  works  in  1640,  and  also  to  be 
found  in  the  modern  editions,  is  not  the  pro- 
duction originally  compiled  by  that  eminent 
writer,  but  a  series  of  notes  and  rough  material 
collected  perhaps  for  a  new  undertaking  after 
the  destruction  of  Jonson's  books  and  MSS.  by 
an  accidental  fire.  It  appears  that  the  author 
had  taken  considerable  trouble  to  collect  to- 
gether the  literature  of  this  class  already  exist- 
ing in  our  own  and  other  languages, with  a  view 
to  comparison  and  improvement,  and  he  was 
probably  assisted  by  friends,  as  Howell  speaks 
so  early  as  1620  of  having  borrowed  for  him 
Davis's  Welsh  Grammar,  "to  add  to  those 


234  Schools,  School-Books, 

many  which  he  already  had."  Sir  Francis 
Kinaston  cites  "his  most  learned  and  celebrated 
friend,  Master  Ben  Jonson,"  as  the  possessor  of 
a  very  ancient  grammar  written  in  the  Saxon 
tongue  and  character,  by  way  of  illustrating 
what  it  could  scarcely  illustrate  — the  state  of 
our  language  in  the  time  of  Chaucer.  This 
book  doubtless  perished  with  the  rest. 

The  work  in  its  present  state  is  divided 
into  chapters  :  Of  Grammar  and  the  Parts; 
Of  Letters  and  their  Powers;  Of  the  Voivels', 
Of  the  Consonants,  and  so  forth.  In  the  third 
chapter,  under  Y,  the  writer  remarks  :  —  "  Y  is 
mere  vowelish  in  our  tongue,  and  hath  only  the 
power  of  an  i,  even  where  it  obtains  the  seat  of 
a  consonant,  as  in  young,  younker,  which  the 
Dutch,  whose  primitive  it  is, write  junk,  junker. 
And  so  might  we  write  iouth,  ies,ioke.  .  .  " 

u  G  is  a  letter,"  he  says,  "  which  our  fore- 
fathers might  very  well  have  spared  in  our 
tongue;  but  since  it  hath  obtained  place  both 
in  our  writing  and  language,  we  are  not  now  to 
quarrel  with  orthography  or  custom."  Nor  is  c 
the  only  member  of  the  alphabet  with  which 
Jonson  considers  that  we  might  have  advan- 


and  Schoolmasters.  235 

tageously  dispensed  ;  for  in  a  subsequent  page 
he  declares  that  "q  is  a  letter  we  might  very 
well  have  spared  in  our  alphabet,  if  we  would 

but  use  the  serviceable  k  as  he  should  be,  and 

% 
restore  him  to  the  right  of  reputation  he  had 

with  our  forefathers.  For  the  English  Saxon 
knew  not  this  halting  q,  with  her  waiting- 
woman  n  after  her,  but  exprest 


quail.  \  (  kuail, 

, 
jDy 


quest.  (          ,  1  kuest, 

jD 


quick. 
quill. 

In  other  words,  Jonson,  discarding  c  and  q, 
was  with  those  who  nowadays  ask  us  to  say 
Kikero,  Kelt,  Kcesar  ;  and  he  seems  al*o  to  be 
an  advocate  for  such  terminations  as  st  or  pt 
for  ed  in  exprest,  confest,  profest,  stopt,  dropt, 
cropt,  wherein  he  has  a  follower  in  Mr.  Furni- 
vall. 

His  demonstration  of  the  manner  in  which 
the  several  letters  ough  to  be  sounded  as  pro- 
nounced is  occasionally  very  amusing.  "T," 
he  informs  the  reader,  "  is  sounded  with  the 
tongue  striking  the  upper  teeth."  "  P  breaketh 
softly  through  the  lips."  "  N  ringeth  somewhat 
more  in  the  lips  and  nose."  But  of  H  he 


236          Schools,  School-Books, 

remarks  :  "  Whether  it  be  a  letter  or  no,  hath 
been  much  examined  by  the  ancients,  and  by 
some  of  the  Greek  party  too  much  condemned, 
and  thrown  out  of  the  alphabet." 

This  last  piece  of  criticism  should  have  its 
consoling  effect  on  those  among  the  moderns 
who  also  repudiate  it,  and  may  not  be  aware 
that  they  have  the  Greek  party  in  Jonson's  day 
on  their  side,  only  that  the  Greek  party  did  not 
offer  the  deposed  letter  any  substituted  position. 

Jonson's  Grammar,  as  we  have  it,  is  a  book 
for  scholars  and  philologists,  however,  rather 
than  for  the  elementary  stage  of  education.  The 
method  is  discursive  and  the  style  obscure; 
and  it  is  chiefly  prizable  as  an  evidence  of  the 
versatility,  the  extensive  reading,  and  the  perse- 
verance of  the  author.  He  quotes  among  his 
examples  Sir  Thomas  More,  Gower,  Lidgate, 
Fox's  Martyrs,  Harding's  Chronicle,  Chaucer, 
and  Sir  John  Cheke. 

It  is  curious  enough  that  Jonsori's  notion  as 
to  the  superfluities  of  our  alphabet  is  supported 
to  some  extent  by  the  orthography  sanctioned 
by  M.  Vimont  in  his  Relation  de  la  Nouvelle 
France ,  1641,  where  he  puts  Kebeckior  Quebec ; 


and  Schoolmasters.  237 

but  the  change  must  necessarily  influence  the 
pronunciation. 

Neither  of  these  writers  was  avowedly  an 
advocate  of  Phonography ;  but  the  adoption  of 
that  principle  of  spelling  Avould  necessarily  in- 
volve the  dispensation  with  certain  letters  which 
at  present  form  part  of  the  English  A.  B.  G. 

In  the  dedication  to  Lord  Herbert  of  his 
little  book,  JAMES  SHIRLEY  refers  to  the  abun- 
dance of  such  treatises  at  that  time  before  the 
public,  "by  which  some,"  he  says,  "would  pro- 
phetically imply  the  decay  of  learning,  as  if  the 
root  and  foundation  of  art  stood  in  need  of 
warmth  and  reparation."  But  he  furnishes  no 
information  respecting  himself  or  the  motives 
which  led  him  to  write  the  volume,  although  it 
is  readily  inferable  that  he  did  so  to  augment  the 
slender  income  which  he  derived,  after  the  clos- 
ing of  the  theatres,  from  school-work  in  White- 
friars.  Some  of  the  illustrations  are  in  such 
couplets  as  the  subjoined  :  — 

"  In  cli,  do,  clum,  the  Gerunds  chime  and  close, 
Urn,  the  first  Supine,  u  the  latter  shews." 

As  late  as  1726,  Jenkin  Thomas  Phillipps 
reprinted  Shirley's  Grammar  with  additions. 


238         Schools,  School-Book*, 

On  the  title-page  of  this  edition  it  is  said  to  be 
"  for  the  use  of  Prince  William." 

In  1640  Thomas  Hayne  published  his  Gram- 
malices  Lathioe  Compendium.  A  copy  before 
me  was  presented  by  the  author  to  Charles  II. 
when  a  boy,  and  has  an  autograph  inscription 
on  the  blank  page  before  the  title  to  the  young 
Prince.  It  also  passed  through  the  hands  of 
his  brother,  James  Duke  of  York,  who  has  writ- 
ten James  Duke  of  Yorke  in  a  childish  hand  on 
the  fly-leaf.  During  the  troubles  it  seems  to 
have  passed  out  of  their  hands,  and  was  bought 
at  Oxford  on  the  4th  October  1G47  by  a  later 
owner,  who  records  the  fact  at  the  top  of  an- 
other page.  It  was  subsequently  at  Stowe,  and 
the  fine  old  blue  morocco  binding  betrays  no 
sign  of  a  schoolboy's  thumbs. 

Hayne  supplies  a  highly  interesting  survey  of 
the  progress  and  development  of  this  branch 
of  literature  and  learning  in  former  days,  and 
some  of  the  later  attempts  made  with  a  view 
to  improve  the  method,  and  explains  his  own 
plan,  which  introduces  the  English  and  Latin 
in  parallel  columns,  and  systematises  and  tabu- 
lates the  cases  and  declensions  in  a  more 


and  Schoolmasters.  239 

lucid  manner  than  the  prior  experiments.  If 
\ve  set  it  side  by  side  with  Whittinton's  eleven 
divisions,  we  see  that  it  is  a  great  advance. 

From  the  commencement  of  the  seventeenth 
century  an  increasing  volume  of  literature  cal- 
culated to  assist  the  diffusion  of  useful  and  im- 
proving knowledge  supplemented  the  books 
expressly  designed  for  schools.  These  publi- 
cations, belonging  to  nearly  every  department 
of  science  and  inquiry,  were  often  reproduced 
with  the  same  steady  regularity  as  the  educa- 
tional works  themselves  ;  and  nothing  more  tri- 
umphantly establishes  the  unceasing  progress 
of  discovery  and  reform  than  the  fact  that  the 
standard  manuals  of  one  century  become  the 
waste  paper  of  the  next. 

As  one  arrests  a  stray  copy  of  Heylin's  Cos- 
mography,  Godwin's  Roman  Antiquities,  edited 
for  the  use  of  Abingdon  School,  Provost  Rous's 
Attic  Archaeology,  Prideaux's  Introduction  to  the 
Reading  of  Histories,  or  any  other  book  of  the 
same  stamp,  on  its  passage  from  an  old  collec- 
tion to  the  mill,  a  not  unlikely  reflection  to 
arise  is  that,  considering  their  straitened  oppor- 
tunities and  the  force  of  clerical  influence,  the 


240       Schools  and  Schoolmasters. 

culture  and  light  of  our  ancestors  were   in  fail- 
relative  proportion  to  our  own. 

The  literary  thought  and  bias  of  the  age  were 
naturally  affected  by  these  shallow  and  meagre 
repertories  of  information,  which  were  as  far 
removed  in  scholarship  from  the  Roman  Anti- 
quities of  Adams  and  the  Dictionary  of  Lem- 
priere  as  Adams  and  Lempriere  are  removed 
from  Dr.  Smith's  series. 


(    241     ) 


XVII. 

Limited  acquaintance  with  the  Greek  language  in  England 
— Erasmus  first  learns,  and  then  teaches,  Greek  at  Cam- 
bridge—Notices of  a  few  Philhellenists— Study  of  the 
language  at  Rhodes  by  Lily  — Languid  interest  in  it 
among  us— Disputes  at  Cambridge  as  to  the  pronuncia- 
tion— Remarks  on  this  subject — The  tract  by  John  Kay 
—  Few  books  in  the  Greek  character  printed  in  England. 

I.  THE  few  scattered  notices,  which  offer 
themselves  in  Warton  and  other  authorities,  of 
Englishmen  of  very  remote  days  who  entered 
on  the  study  of  the  Greek  tongue,  tend  mainly 
to  illustrate  the  fact,  how  sparingly  and  imper- 
fectly that  noble  and  precious  language  was 
cultivated  down  to  the  age  of  Elizabeth  ;  and 
of  course  this  circumstance  involves  the  almost 
complete  neglect  of  it  in  our  universities  and 
academies.  Warton  himself  cites  a  case  in 
which  a  scholar  travelled  from  Malmesbury  to 
Canterbury  in  order  to  improve  a  rudimentary 

Q 


242          Schools,  School-Books, 

acquaintance  with  Greek  which  he  had  gained 
through  a  local  monastic  seminary. 

The  first  man  who  helped  at  all  largely  and 
sensibly  to  render  Greek  a  part  of  the  educa- 
tional system  was  Lily  the  grammarian,  who 
spent  some  years  of  his  life  at  Rhodes,  and 
introduced  a  study  of  the  language  into  the 
routine  of  St.  Paul's,  whence  it  found  its  way 
by  degrees  to  the  other  great  foundations  in 
London  and  in  the  provinces. 

The  biographer  of  Colet  has  something  to 
say  on  this  subject  :  — 

"Such  was  the  infelicity  of  those  times,  that 
the  Greek  tongue  was  not  taught  in  any  of  our 
grammar-schools ;  nor  was  there  thought  to  be 
any  great  need  of  it  in  the  two  Universities  by 
the  generality  of  scholars.  It  is  worth  notice 
that  [John]  Standish,  who  was  a  bitter  enemy 
to  Erasmus,  in  his  declamation  against  him 
styles  him  Grceculus  isle;  which  was  a  long 
time  after  the  phrase  for  an  heretic." 

"  But,"  he  adds,  "  Dr.  John  Fisher.  .  .  was 
of  another  mind,  and  very  sensible  of  this  im- 
perfection, which  made  him  desirous  to  learn 
Greek  in  his  declining  years." 


and  Schoolmasters.  243 

The  Bishop,  however,  who  through  Erasmus 
was  recommended  to  William  Latymer,  one  of 
the  foremost  Philhellenists  of  the  clay,  could 
not  persuade  that  scholar  to  enter  on  the  task, 
as  he  considered  the  prelate  too  old  to  acquire 
the  language;  and  Knight  tells  us  that,  in  order 
to  escape  from  the  application,  he  advised 
Fisher  to  send  for  a  professor  out  of  Italy. 

Englishmen,  even  at  a  later  period  than  this, 
occasionally  went  to  Florence  or  elsewhere  to 
learn  Greek;  but  Erasmus  made  himself,  with 
the  assistance  of  Linacre,  tolerably  proficient  in 
it,  on  the  contrary,  during  his  first  visit  to  Eng- 
land in  the  time  of  Henry  the  Seventh  (1497-8), 
and  was  sufficiently  versed,  at  all  events  in  the 
rudiments,  to  give  lessons  to  others  while  he 
remained  at  Cambridge.  Doubtless  he  did  so 
in  aid  of  his  expenses. 

"In  Cambridge,"  observes  Knight,  "Eras- 
mus was  the  first  who  taught  the  Greek  gram- 
mar. And  so  very  low  was  the  state  of  learning 
in  that  University,  that  (as  he  tells  a  friend) 
about  the  year  1485,  the  beginning  of  Henry 
the  Seventh's  reign,  there  was  nothing  taught  in 
that  public  seminary  besides  Alexander's  Parva 


244  Schools,  School-Books, 

Loyicalia  (as  they  called  them),  the  old  axioms 
of  Aristotle,  and  the  questions  of  John  Scotus." 

Erasmus  himself  was  for  some  time  Greek 
Header  at  Cambridge,  and  was  contemporary 
there  with  Richard  Croke,  of  King's  College, 
who'did  valuable  service  in  promotingthe  cause 
of  classical  learning  at  that  University,  and  pub- 
lished several  tracts  relating  to  the  Greek  lite- 
rature and  tongue,  including  Introdiictiones  ad 
Lingumn  Gru'catn  and  Elemcnta  Grammatics 
Ciru'co' — the  earliest  attempts  to  place  before 
students  in  a  handy  form  the  alphabet  of  the 
subject. 

At  Oxford  it  was  an  Italian,  Cornelius  Yitel- 
lius,  who  became  the  first  Greek  professor,  and 
William  Grocyne,  who  with  Latymer  and  Lina- 
cre  was  the  earliest  Greek  scholar  in  England, 
was  among  his  pupils. 

It  is  to  be  suspected  that,  while  a  man  of 
genius  like  Erasmus  could  scarcely  have  failed 
to  make  something  of  whatever  he  seriously 
undertook,  his  conversance  with  Greek  was 
always  comparatively  superficial,  and  it  is 
merely  an  additional  piece  of  evidence  how 
little  the  language  was  cultivated  at  Cambridge 


and  Schoolmasters.  245 

at  that  epoch,  that   he  was  enabled  to   earn 
money  as  a  teacher  of  it. 

It  was  not  apparently  till  1524  that  Greek- 
type  was  introduced  into  our  printing-offices. 
Linacre's  book  T)e  Emendata  Structura  Latini 
Sermonis,  published  in  that  year,  is  generally 
received  as  containing  the  first  specimen  found 
in  any  production  of  the  English  press.  The 
Greek  alphabet  occurs  in  the  Primer  of  1548. 

II.  Florence,  Rome,  Padua,  and  Rhodes 
were  four  great  centres  whither  foreigners  were 
then  accustomed  to  resort  for  the  study  and 
mastery  of  Greek.  In  the  Life  of  Dean  Colet 
it  is  shown  how  he  travelled  in  Italy,  and  met 
with  two  of  his  countrymen  at  Florence,  Grocyn 
and  Linacre,  and  with  a  third  at  Rome,  Lily, 
afterwards  the  famous  grammarian,  who,  after 
learning  Greek  at  Rhodes,  had  proceeded  to 
Rome  to  render  himself  equally  adept  in  Latin, 
so  that,  when  he  finally  settled  in  London, 
he  had  served  a  laborious  apprenticeship  and 
taken  unusual  pains  to  become  an  instructor 
of  others. 

Colet  himself,  it  is  to  be  noted,  displayed  in 


246  Schools,  School-Books, 

earlier  life  a  bent  towards  theology  and  the 
Fathers,  though  he  had  scanty  sympathy  with 
the  survivals  whom  he  found  around  him,  both 
at  home  and  abroad,  of  the  monastic  school- 
men and  expounders  of  the  old  divinity. 

"He  had  observed  these  schoolmen/'  says 
his  biographer  indeed,  "  to  be  a  heavy  set  of 
formal  fellows,  that  might  pretend  to  anything 
rather  than  to  wit  and  sense,  for  to  argue  so 
elaborately  about  the  opinions  and  the  very 
words  of  other  men  :  to  snarl  in  perpetual  ob- 
jections, and  to  distinguish  and  divide  into  a 
thousand  niceties  :  this  was  rather  the  work 
of  a  pooi1  and  barren  invention  than  anything 
else." 

Knight  preserves  a  rather  diverting  anecdote 
of  a  preacher  who  spoke  in  his  sermon  before 
Henry  VIII.  against  the  Greek  tongue,  and  of 
a  conference  which  Henry  caused  lobe  arranged 
after  the  discourse,  at  which  in  his  presence  the 
divine  and  More  should  take  opposite  sides, 
the  former  attacking,  and  the  latter  vindicating, 
the  language.  More  did  his  part,  but  the  other 
fell  down  on  his  knees  and  begged  the  King's 
pardon,  alleging  that  what  he  did  was  by  the 


and  Schoolmasters.  247 

impulse  of  the  Spirit.  "  Not  the  spirit  of 
Christ,"  says  the  King  to  him,  "but  the  spirit 
of  infatuation."  His  majesty  then  asked  him 
whether  he  had  read  anything  of  Erasmus,whom 
he  assailed  from  the  pulpit.  He  said  "  No.  " 
"Why  then,"  says  the  King,  "you  are  a  very 
foolish  fellow  to  censure  what  you  never  read." 
"I  have  read,"  says  he,  "something  they  call 
Moria."  "Yes,"  says  Richard  Pace,  "may  it 
please  your  highness,  such  a  subject  is  fit  for 
such  a  reader." 

The  end  of  it  was  that  the  preacher  declared 
himself  on  reflection  more  reconciled  to  the 
Greek, because  it  was  derived  from  the  Hebrew, 
and  that  Henry  dispensed  with  his  further 
attendance  upon  the  Court. 

The  feeling  and  taste  for  Greek  culture  which 
Lily,  Erasmus,  and  others  had  introduced  and 
encouraged,  were  promoted  by  the  exertions  of 
Sir  John  Cheke  and  Sir  Thomas  Smith  at 
Cambridge,  and  by  Dr.  Kay  or  Cains;  and  a 
controversy,  almost  amounting  to  a  quarrel, 
which  Cheke  had  with  Bishop  Gardiner  on 
Greek  pronunciation,  stimulated  the  movement 
by  attracting  public  attention  to  the  matter,  and 


248          Schools,  School-Books, 

bringing  into  notice  many  Greek  authors  whose 
works  had  not  hitherto  been  read. 

The  literary  contest  between  Cheke  and 
Gardiner  was  printed  abroad  in  1555,  and  only 
eleven  years  later  a  paraphrase  of  the  Phoenissai 
of  P'uripides  by  George  Gascoigne  and  Francis 
Kinwelmersh  was  performed  at  Gray's  Inn. 

III.  The  tract  published  by  the  learned  John 
Kay  in  1574  on  the  pronunciation  of  Greek  and 
Latin  is  rather  pertinent  to  the  present  move- 
ment for  varying  the  old  fashion  in  this  respect. 
Kay  instances  the  cases  of  substituting  olti  for 
illi,  queis  for  quihus,  mareitoicjrmarito,maxume 
for  maxime ;  and  in  Greek  words,  the  ancients, 
says  he,  certainly  said  Achilles,  Tydes,  Theses, 
and  Ulisses,  not,  as  people  sometimes  now  do, 
Achillews,  Tudews,  Teseivs,  and  Ulusseivs.  The 
author  likewise  refers  to  the  employment  of  the 
aspirate  in  orthography,  as  in  hydropuis,therwce, 
Bathonia,  and  Hyberma,  which  used  to  be  read 
ydropisis,  termw,  Batonia,  and  Ivernia.  He 
was  clearly  no  advocate  for  the  latter-day  mode 
in  England  of  hardening  the  g  and  the  c  as  in 
Regina  and  Cicero. 


and  Schoolmasters.  249 

But  the  fact  is  that,  where  there  are  no  posi- 
tive data  for  fixing  the  standard  or  laying  down 
any  general  principle,  there  can  never  be  an 
end  of  the  conflicting  views  and  theories  on  this 
subject,  and  the  best  of  them  amount  to  little 
more  than  guess-work. 

The  modes  of  pronouncing  both  the  Greek 
and  Latin  languages  have  always  probably 
varied,  as  they  do  yet,  in  different  countries; 
and  the  Scots  adhere  to  the  Continental  fashion 
as  regards,  at  all  events,  the  latter. 

Experience  and  practical  observation  seem  to 
shew  that  every  locality  has  a  tendency  to  adapt 
its  rules  for  sounding  the  dead  tongues  to  those 
in  force  for  sounding  its  current  vocabulary  ; 
as  a  Roumanian  lad,  for  instance,  in  learning 
Latin,  will  instinctively  follow  his  native  asso- 
ciations in  giving  utterance  to  diphthongs, 
vowels,  and  compound  words.  The  Greek 
language,  in  respect  to  this  point  of  view,  occu- 
pies an  anomalous  position,  because  it  enjoys 
a  partial  survivorship  in  the  Neo-Hellenic  dia- 
lect; and  it  has  been  natural  to  seek  in  the 
method  employed  by  their  modern  representa- 
tives and  descendants  a  key  to  that  employed 


250         Schools,  School-Books, 

by  the  inhabitants  of  ancient  Hellas  in  pro- 
nouncing words  and  particles,  and,  in  short,  to 
the  grammatical  laws  by  which  theirspecchwas 
regulated. 

It  appears,  however,  that  philologists  have 
been  disappointed  in  the  results  of  this  test, 
as  the  differences  between  the  two  idioms  are 
often  so  wide  and  material.  Yet,  nevertheless, 
a  Greek  of  the  nineteenth  century  must  be 
allowed  to  be  a  rather  important  witness  in  tak- 
ing evidence  on  such  a  question,  as  the  whole 
strength  of  received  tradition  and  Siprimd  facie 
argument  are  on  his  side;  and  when  we  find 
that  he  gives  to  the  long  E  or  r.rot.  the  force  of 
A,  and  to  the  diphthong  u  that"  of  E,  we  grow 
•somewhat  sceptical  as  to  our  right  to  impose  on 
those  particles  a  different  function,  especially 
seeing  that  the  Ionic  dialect  and  the  metrical 
arrangement  of  the  Iliad  ostensibly  support  this 
interchange  of  phonetic  values.  I  need  scarcely 
advert  to  the  favourite  theory  that,  so  far  as  the 
Greek  long  E  is  concerned,  it  had  its  source  in 
the  vocal  intonation  of  the  sheep,  which  is,  after 
all,  far  from  an  invariable  standard. 

The  Englishman,  in  dealing  with  such  themes 


and  Schoolmasters.  251 

as  foreign  spelling  and  pronunciation,  treads 
upon  eggs,  so  to  speak,  as  he  lives  within  the 
knowledge  of  the  whole  world  in  a  glass  house 
of  his  own. 

IV.  But  scarcely  any  books  in  the  Greek 
character  were  printed  in  England  until  Edward 
Grant,  head-master  of  Westminster  School, 
brought  out  his  Groecce  Linguae  Spicilegium,  or 
Greek  Delectus,  in  1575.  It  saw  only  a  single 
edition,  and  is  still  a  common  book,  not  having 
been  apparently  successful;  and  the  next 
attempt  of  the  kind  did  not  even  appeal  to  the 
English  student,  though  the  work  of  a  native  of 
North  Britain;  for  Alexander  Scot  published  his 
Universa  Grammatica  Grceca  at  Lyons  in  a  shape 
calculated  to  invite  a  yet  more  limited  circula- 
tion than  the  essay  of  Grant. 

Perhaps  one  of  the  earliest  English  publica- 
tions relative  to  the  study  of  Greek  poetry  was 
the  Progymnasma  Scholasticum-  of  John  Stock- 
wood,  published  in  1596.  Stockwood  had  been 
master  of  Tonbridge  School,  a  foundation  estab- 
lished by  the  Skinners'  Company,  and  while  he 
was  there  brought  out  one  or  two  professional 


252          Schools,  School-Books, 

works.  This  was  avowedly  taken  from  the 
Anthology  of  Stephanus,  and  presents  a  Greek- 
Latin  interlinear  text. 

Again,  in  1631,  William  Burton,  the  Leicester- 
shire historian,  and  a  schoolmaster  by  profes- 
sion, delivered  at  Gloucester  Hall,  Oxford,  an 
oration  on  the  originandprogress  of  Greek, which 
many  years  later,  when  he  had  charge  of  the 
school  at  Kingston-on-Thames,  was  edited  by 
Gerard  Langbaine.  It  was  a  scholarly  thesis, 
and  of  no  educational  significance,  except  that 
it  exhibited  the  survival  of  some  languid  inte- 
rest in  the  topic  at  the  University. 

Very  few  Greek  authors  found  early  transla- 
tors here  beyond  the  selections  prepared  for 
schools;  but  it  is  remarkable  that  the  example 
in  this  way  was  set  by  a  citizen  of  London,  and 
a  member  of  the  Goldsmiths'  Company,  Thomas 
Niccols,  who  in  1550,  at  the  instance  of  Sir  John 
Gheke,  undertook  to  put  into  English  the  His- 
tory of  Thucydides.  This  was  almost  a  century 
before  the  version  by  Hobbes  of  Malmesbury. 

The  partial  translation  of  the  Iliad  by  Arthur 
Hall  of  Grantham,  1581,  was  taken  from  the 
French.  But  Chapman  accomplished  the  feat 


and  Schoolmasters.  253 

of  rendering  the  whole  of  Homer,  as  well  as  the 
Georyics  of  Hesiod  and  theNeo-Greek  #ero  and 
Leander.  At  a  later  date,  Thomas  Grantham, 
a  schoolmaster  in  Lothbury,  who  seems  to  have 
been  in  a  state  of  perpetual  warfare  with  his  cri- 
tics as  to  the  merits  of  his  fashion  of  teaching, 
brought  out  at  his  own  expense,  and  possibly  for 
the  use  of  his  own  pupils,  the  first,  second,and 
third  books  of  the  Iliad. 

The  grand  work  of  Herodotus  was  approa- 
ched in  1584  by  an  anonymous  writer,  who 
completed  only  Clio  and  Euterpe. 

But  these  intermittent  and  isolated  cases  shew 
how  languid  the  feeling  for  Hellenic  literature 
and  history  long  remained  in  England ;  nor, 
when  we  regard  the  unsatisfactory  character  of 
the  translations  from  the  Greek,  with  rare  ex- 
ceptions, down  to  the  present  day,  is  it  hard 
to  see  that  the  want  was  at  least  as  -largely  due 
to  incapacity  on  the  part  of  scholars  as  to  indif- 
ference on  that  of  the  public. 

Many  of  the  schools  employed  a  small  ele- 
mentary selection  from  the  Greek  writers,  of 
which  a  fifth  edition  was  printed  in  1771. 

When  Charles  Lamb  was  at  the  Blue  Coat 


254       Schools  and  Schoolmasters. 

School  (1782-9),  the  Greek  authors  read  there 
appear  to  have  been  Lucian  and  Xenophon, 
the  former  in  a  Selection  from  the  Dialogues. 
The  present  writer,  who  was  at  Merchant  Tay- 
lors' School  from  1842  to  1850,  used  Xeno- 
phon, Homer,  Euripides,  Sophocles,  and  some 
volume  of  Analecta.  When  the  school  was 
founded  in  1561,  it  was  difficult  to  find  a  boy 
to  read  Greek ;  but  in  the  following  century  it 
enters  rather  prominently  into  the  prospectus 
on  Examination-day. 

All  the  great  seminaries  differ  in  their  lists; 
the  choice  depends  on  the  personal  taste  of 
the  masters  from  time  to  time;  and  there  is  a 
certain  virtue  in  traditional  names. 

But  the  truth  is  that  in  England,  after  all, 
although  this  language  has  continued  to  be 
taught  in  all  schools  of  any  standing  or  peten- 
sion,  the  critical  study  and  genuine  appreciation 
of  it  have  always  been  confined  to  a  narrow 
circle  of  scholars;  and  nowadays  there  is  a 
growing  tendency  to  prefer  the  living  languages, 
as  they  are  called,  to  the  dead. 


(    255    ) 


XVIII. 

Ancient  French  school-books  for  English  learners—Their  his- 
torical and  philological  interest— Succession  of  writers 
and  teachers— Hollyband,  Florio,  Delamothe,  and  others 
—  Sketches  of  their  work  — Their  imperfect  acquaintance 
with  our  language  -Other  publications  of  an  educational 
cast. 

I.  TURNING  to  the  French  language,  there  is 
a  very  singular  relic  of  early  times  in  the  shape 
of  an  Anglo-Gallic  Vocabulary  of  the  end  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  in  which  the  spelling  of  both 
languages  is  strikingly  archaic  :— 

Here  is  a  good  boke  to  lerne  to  spekefrench. 
Vecyung  bon  lievreaapprendre  parler  fraun- 
choys. 

In  the  name  of  the  fader  of  the  sonne. 
En  nom  du  pere  et  du  fils. 
And  of  the  holy  goost  I  will  begynne. 


256          Schools,   School-Book^, 

Et  du  saint  esprit  ieveuel  comencbier. 

To  lerne  to  speke  frenche. 

A  apprendre  a  parlor  franchoys." 

After  this  exordium  follow  the  numbers,  the 
names  of  precious  stones,  articles  of  merchan- 
dise, fruits,  wines,  &c.  Wine  of  rochell  is  ren- 
dered vinde  rosele.  What  we  know  as  Beauneis 
called  byane  in  French  and  beaune  in  English. 
On  the  fourth  page,  among  "Other  maner  of 
speche  in  frenche/'  occur  : — 

"  Sir  god  giue  you  good  day. 
Sire  dieu  vous  doint  bon  iour. 
Sir  god  giue  you  good  euyn. 
Sire  dieu  vous  doint  bon  vespere. 
Holde  sir  here  it  is. 
Tenez  sire  le  veez  ey." 

The  z  in  tenei  seems  to  have  been  specially 
cut,  for  it  is  of  a  different  font  or  case,  and,  curi- 
ously enough,  in  the  next  sentence  it  is  wrongly 
inserted  in  ditez  (for  elites).  The  question  is 
asked  how  much  one  man  owes  another,  and 
the  reply  is  ten  shillings,  for  which  the  French 
equivalent  is  taken  to  be  dix  soulz.  But  there 
were  no  shillings  in  England  at  that  time  ;  per- 


and  Schoolmasters.  257 

haps  the  writer  was  thinking  of  the  skilling, 
with  which  our  coin  has  no  more  than  a  nominal 
affinity. 

The  Eclair cissement  de  la  langue  Francoise, 
by  John  Palsgrave,  1530,  and  the  Introductory 
to  learn, pronounce,  and  speak  the  French  tongue, 
by  Giles  Du  Wes  or  Dewes,  written  some  years 
later  for  the  use  of  the  Princess  Mary  in  the  same 
way  as  Li  nacre's  Latin  Grammar  had  been,  are 
sufficiently  familiar  from  their  reproduction  in 
modern  times  under  the  auspices  of  the  French 
Government.  Dewes  was  not  improbably  re- 
lated to  a  person  of  the  same  name  who  acted 
as  preceptor  to  the  son  of  Cromwell,  Earl  of 
Essex.  Both  he  and  Palsgrave  were  professional 
teachers;  but  Palsgrave  was  a  Londoner,  who 
had  completed  his  studies  in  the  Parisian  Gym- 
nasium; and  he  at  all  events  was  a  Latin,  no 
less  than  a  French  scholar.  In  the  dedication 
of  his  English  version  of  the  Comedy  of  Acolas- 
tus  to  Henry  VIII.  in  1540,  he  speaks  at  some 
length,  and  in  laudatory  terms,  of  the  official 
Primer  issued  in  that  year,  and  he  also  conveys 
to  us  the  notion  of  being  then  advanced  in  life. 

Nearly,  if  not  quite,  contemporary  with  him 

R 


258  Schools,  School-Books, 

and  Dewes  was  Pierre  du  Ploiehe,  who  in  the 
time  of  Henry  published  a  very  curious  little 
volume  of  more  general  scope,  called  A  Treatise 
in  Englishand  French  right  necessary  and  profit- 
able for  all  young  children.  Du  Ploiche,  when 
this  work  appeared, was  residing  in  Trinity  Lane, 
at  the  sign  of  the  Rose.  He  gives  us  in  parallel 
columns,  the  English  on  the  left  hand,  and  the 
French  equivalent  on  the  right,  the  Catechism, 
ihe  Litany  and  Suffrages, and  a  series  of  Prayers. 
These  occupy  three  sections;  the  fourth,  fifth, 
and  sixth  sections  are  devoted  to  secular  and 
familiar  topics  :  For  to  speake  at  the  table,  for  to 
aske  the  way,  and  for  to  bie  and  sell;  and  the 
concluding  portion  embraces  the  A.  B.  G.  and 
Grammar. 

The  English  is  pretty  much  on  a  par  with 
that  found  in  educational  treatises  produced  by 
foreigners,  and  the  French  itself  is  decidedly  of 
an  archaic  cast,  though,  doubtless,  such  as  was 
generally  recognised  and  understood  in  the 
sixteenth  century.  I  shall  pass  over  the  reli- 
gious divisions,  and  transcribe  a  few  specimens 
from  the  three  groups  of  dialogue  on  social  or 
personal  subjects. 


and  Schoolmasters  259 

The  third  chapter,  where  the  scene  at  a  meal 
is  depicted,  affords,  of  course,  some  interesting 
suggestions  and  illustrations,  yet  little  that  is 
very  new,  except  that  we  seem  to  get  a  glimpse 
of  the  practice,  borrowed  from  monastic  life,  of 
some  one  reading  aloud  while  the  rest  were  at 
their  repast.  For  one  says  :  "Reade.Maynerd, 
Lisez  Maynart"  to  which  the  other  rejoins  : 
"Where  shall  I  reade?"  and  the  first  answers  : 
"There  where  your  fellow  lefte  yesterday,"  so 
that  it  was  apparently  the  custom  to  take  turns. 
We  perceive,  too,  that  the  dinner  was  both 
ushered  in  and  wound  up  with  very  elaborate 
graces.  In  this  dialogue,  as  well  as  in  the  next 
about  asking  the  way,  there  is  mention  of  almost 
every  description  of  utensil,  but  no  reference  to 
the  fork,  which  was  not  yet  in  general  use. 

There  is  a  delicate  refinement  of  phraseology 
here  and  there,  aswhere  "You  ly"  is  rendered 
"Vous  espargnez  la  verite;"  and  Du  Ploiche 
does  not  fail  to  advertise  himself  and  his  address, 
for  when  one  of  the  interlocutors  demands  : 
"Where  go  you  to  schole?"  the  other  is  made 
to  reply  :  "In  trinytie  lane  at  the  signe  of  the 
Rose.' 


260  Schools,  School-Books, 

The  annexed  extract  from  the  same  chapter 
may  assist  in  fixing  the  date  of  the  publica- 
tion to  1544:— 

"  And  you  sir,  from  whence  "Etvous  seigneur,  d'ouvenez 

com  you?  vans'? 

I  come  from  Bulloigne.  le  viens  de  Boido^(i»<>. 

From  Englande,  from  Ger-  D'Enyleterre,  d'Allemaigne. 
many. 

What  newes?  Quelle  nouuelies? 

I  know  none  but  good.  le  tic  scay  rien  que  bien. 

I  harde  say  i'aij  ouy  dire 

That  the  Englishe  men  quo  les  anglois 

haue  kylled  many  frenche  ontoccis  beaucoup  de  Fran- 
men,  cois. 

And  where  ?  Et  on? 

Before  Bulloigne.  Deuanl  Boulongne. 

When  came  the  newes?  Quant  vinrent  tez  nouuellel 

This  morninge  by  a  post."  A  ce  matin  par  vng  poste." 

The  portion  which  yields  this  matter  com- 
prises all  the  incidents  of  a  long  journey,  the 
arrival  at  the  inn,  the  call  for  refreshment,  the 
baiting  and  putting  up  of  the  horse,  the  retire- 
ment to  rest,  and  the  breakfast  before  departure 
in  the  morning. 

The  sixth  section,  on  buying  and  selling, 
exhibits  no  remarkable  examples,  or  rather 
nothing  that  I  can,  with  so  large  a  choice, afford 
to  cite,  and  the  grammatical  part  follows  the 


and  Schoolmasters.  261 

usual  lines.  The  present  treatise  came  to  a  new 
edition  in  1578,  but  it  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  very  successful. 

In  point  of  fact,  the  taste  and  demand  for 
such  a  class  of  hand-books  or  primers  had  not 
fully  set  in.  With  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  the 
habit  of  foreign  travel  and  the  consequent  value 
of  a  conversance  with  languages,  especially 
French  and  Italian,  imparted  the  first ..jnarked 
stimulusand  developmenttothisclass  ofliterary 
enterprise. 

II.  Claude  Desainliens,  who  transformed  him- 
self into  Claudius  Holy -Band  or  Hollybtind,  and 
who  seems  in  his  earlier  days  to  have  had  quar- 
ters over  or  adjoining  the  sign  of  the  Lucrece 
in  St.  Paul's  Churchyard,  became  a  voluminous 
producer  of  the  dictionaiies,  grammars,  and 
phrase-books  so  popular  in  early  times,  and  in- 
cluded in  his  range  the  Italian  as  well  as  the 
French  series.  Long  after  his  death  his  works 
continued  to  be  in  demand,  and  were  edited 
with  improvements  by  others.  Desainliens  be- 
gan, so  far  as  I  know,  with  his  French  Littleton 
in  1566,  and  his  French  Dictionary  was  not 


262          Schools,  School-Books, 

printed  till  1593.     In  1581   he  had  moved  from 
the  Lucrece  to  the  Golden  Ball,  just  by. 

Perhaps  of  all  his  multifarious  performances 
his  French  and  Italian  Schoolmasters  were  the 
two  which  met  with  the  greatest  favour ;  and 
the  longer  career  of  the  former  may  perhaps  be 
ascribed  to  the  more  general  cultivation  of  the 
French  language  in  England.  The  Italian  School- 
master  originally  appeared  in!575  as  an  annex  to 
a  version  of  the  story  of  Arnalte  and  Lucenda  ; 
but  in  the  subsequent  impressions  of  1597  and 
1608  the  philological  portion  occupies  the  place 
of  honour,  and  the  story  is  made  to  follow.  In 
the  former  the  rules  for  pronunciation  and  such 
matter  as  fell  within  his  knowledge  as  an  Italian 
may  be  passed  as  representing  what  was  the 
correct  practice  and  viewr  at  the  period;  it  is 
with  the  English  illustrations  and  equivalents 
that  one  is  apt  to  be  surprised  and  amused  ; 
and  one,  moreover,  figures  the  occasional  be- 
wilderment even  of  an  English  pupil  at  the 
strange  unidiomatic  forms  which  Desainliens 
has  adopted.  In  other  words,  instead  of  trans- 
lating English  into  Italian,  he  has  translated 
Italian  into  broken  English  ;  as,  for  instance, 


and  Schoolmasters.  263 

where  in  a  dialogue  a  man  is  inquiring  the  way 
to  London,  we  find  at  the  conclusion  such 
pure  Italicisms  as  Have  me  recommended  :  I 
am  yours  :  Bemaine  with  God.  Then,  again, 
terms  are  misapplied,  of  course,  as  thus  :  "Tell 
me  deere  fellowe,  is  it  yet  farre  to  the  citie?  " 
And  when  he  has  entered  his  inn,  he  calls  to 
the  host  :  "Bring  me  for  to  wash  my  hands  and 
face."  At  the  same  time  the  pages  of  this  and 
similar  volumes  abound  with  fruitful  illustrations 
of  all  kinds,  which  we  should  have  been  very 
sorry  indeed  to  lose  ;  and  it  is  to  be  recollected 
that  the  English  glosswas  secondary,  and  that  the 
bizarre  style  and  texture  of  this  class  of  book 
arose  from  the  aim  at  enabling  the  learner  to  be 
prepared  for  all  sorts  of  occasions  and  every 
variety  of  conversational  topic.  The  author 
consequently  leads  him  through  the  different 
occupations  and  incidents  of  life,  and  imagines 
successive  interviews  and  dialogues  with  such 
persons  as  he  would  be  likely  to  encounter. 
In  the  parley  with  a  farrier,  it  comes  out  that 
the  charge  for  shoeing  a  horse  wras  fivepence 
a  foot;  and  in  the  section  Per  maritarsi  =  To 
be  married,  Hollyband  starts  by  rendering  0 


264  Schools,  School-Books, 

bella  giovane  "Ho  fair  maiden."  He  urges  her 
to  be  prompt  in  her  decision  by  citing  the 
proverb,  "Ladie,  whitest  the  iron  is  hote,  it 
must  be  wrought." 

Much  of  the  matter  introduced  by  Desain- 
liens  is  highly  curious  and  even  important.  I 
shall  transcribe  a  section  or  two,  as  they  are 
brief,  for  the  sake  of  the  English  sugges- 
tions : — 

"  To  sing  and  daunce. 

"  0  fellowes,  I  wish  that  wee  shoulde  sing  a  song,  and  I  will 

take  the  lute. 

Let  vs  sing  and  daunce,  when  you  will. 
Mystres,  will  it  please  you  to  daunce  a  galliard  with  me? 

pray  you  therefore. 

1  cannot  daunce  after  the  Italian  fashion. 
We  shall  daunce  after  the  high  Dutch. 
Got  to,  play  a  galliard  vpon  the  violl. 
I  would  rather  vpon  the  virginals.  .  .  . 

Of  the  Booke  binder. 

Shew  me  an  Italian,  and  English  bookes  and  of  the  best 

print. 

I  have  none  bound  at  this  present. 
Bind  me  this  with  silke  and  claspes.  .  .  . 
Reach  me  royall  paper  to  write. 
Neede  you  any  ynke  and  bombash? 
No,   but  wast  paper,  &  of  that  which  wee  call  drinking 

paper.  .  .  . 


and  Schoolmasters.  265 


Of  the  Shoemaker. 

I  would  you  shoulde  make  mee  a  paire  of  bootes,  a  ierkin, 

and  a  paire  of  shoes,  pantofles,  mules,  and  buskins. 
AVe  will  make  the  sir,  &  of  good  leather. 
See  this  faire  shooing. 
Put  on  those  pompes.  .  .  ." 


After  all,  possibly,  such  publications  as  that 
before  me  are  chiefly  valuable  for  a  purpose  for 
which  they  were  not  designed— for  the  boun- 
teous light  which  they  shed  on  our  old  English 
customs  and  notions;  and  I  do  not  think  that 
they  have  been  hitherto  fully  brought  into  em- 
ployment. It  is  obviously  impossible  for  me, 
however,  in  the  present  case  to  remedy  this 
shortcoming,  more  particularly  as  the  quotations 
suffer  by  curtailment  or  paraphrase. 

The  Arnalte  and  Lucenda  takes  up  the  major 
part  of  the  volume,  and  must  be  said  to  be  freer 
from  grammatical  inaccuracies  than  that  divi- 
sion of  the  book  devoted  to  grammar.  Nor 
could  a  man  live  in  London  without  catching 
some  of  the  colloquialisms  current  among  its 
residents.  In  his  Italian  Phrases  we  meet  on 
the  English  side  of  the  page  with :  "Hee  look- 
eth  rather  like  a  cutter  or  fencer  then,"  and 


266          Schools,,  School-Books, 

"He    goeth    accompanied  with   Roisters    and 
cutters." 

The  French  Dictionary  of  D-esainliens  was 
entirely  superseded  by  that  of  Handle  Cotgrave 
in  1611.  The  latter  spared  no  pains  to  make 
his  book  a  really  valuable  performance;  he  in- 
vited help  from  others,  and  modelled  his  labours 
on  a  fairly  intelligible  plan,  and  it  remains  to 
this  day  in  the  enlarged  edition  by  Howell  a 
standard  and  indispensable  work  of  reference. 
It  was  the  only  one  available  for  the  school-boy 
and  student  for  a  considerable  length  of  time. 

III.  Delamothe  and  Erondelle  were  contem- 
porary with  Desainliens,  and  may  have  been 
equally  eminent  and  successful  as  teachers;  but 
they  did  not  display  the  same  degree  of  literary 
activity.  The  former  indeed  produced  nothing 
but  a  French  Alphabet  (1595).  Pierre  Erondelle 
was  a  native  of  Normandy ;  and  besides  new  and 
improved  editionsofhis  predecessorDesainliens, 
he  brought  out  in  1605  a  quaint  book  of  lessons 
for  the  acquisition  of  French,  which  he  called 
The  French  Garden  for  English  Ladies  and 
Gentlemen  to  walk  in;  Or  A  Summer  day's 


and  Schoolmasters.  267 

Labour.  The  volume  mainly  consists  of  thirteen 
dialogues  in  French  and  English,  embracing  the 
various  occupations  of  the  day,  from  the  first 
rising  in  the  morning  till  bedtime.  Some  of  the 
conversations  are  remarkable  for  their  archaic 
naivete  so  far  as  English  ideas  of  decorum  in 
speech  are  concerned ;  but  they  are  nothing 
more  than  the  plainness  of  phrase  which  was 
once  recognised  both  here  and  on  the  Continent, 
and  the  banishment  of  which  has,  at  all  events, 
not  of  itself  added  to  our  morality.  Sterne,  in 
his  Sentimental  Journey,  signalises  as  a  French 
trait  the  incident  of  the  lady  of  quality  with 
whom  he  drove  in  her  carriage ;  but  he  must 
have  been  aware  that  the  tone  in  the  same 
circles  at  home  was  equally  pronounced  ;  and 
editors  of  the  earlier  Georgian  literature  have  to 
exercise  a  pruning  hand  in  dealing  with  MSS.  to 
be  presented  now-a-days  to  public  view. 

Another  of  these  foreign  professors  was 
Jacques  Bellot,  who  published  several  educa- 
tional works  for  the  instruction  of  the  English 
in  the  French  grammar  and  language.  Among 
these LeJardinde  Vertu  et  Bonnes  Moeurs,  1581, 
where  the  English  and  French  are  given,  as 


268  Schools,  School-Books, 

usual,  in  parallel  columns,  is  the  most  remark- 
able. There  is  a  Table  of  Errata  for  both  lan- 
guages; but  that  for  the  English  might,  from 
a  native  point  of  view,  be  indefinitely  extended, 
as  Bellot  proves  himself  as  incapable  of  compre- 
hending our  idiom  as  the  rest  of  his  countrymen. 
He  renders  "Lamemoire  duprodigue  est  nulle" 
by  "Of  the  prodigall  ther  is  no  memory,"  and 
"La  seulle  vertu  est  la  vraye  noblesse"  by  "The 
only  vertue,  is  the  true  nobilitie." 

The  writer  trips,  as  may  be  conjectured,  just 
in  those  nice  points  in  which  even  an  English- 
man is  not  always  at  home. 

New  and  improved  systems  were  continually 
submitted  to  the  public,  or  rather,  in  the  lan- 
guage of  those  days,  to  the  Nobility  and  Gentry. 
In  1634,  the  Grammar  of  Charles  Maupas  of 
Blois,  an  esteemed  and  experienced  teacher, 
who  during  a  career  of  thirty  years  numbered 
among  his  pupils  many  of  the  young  men  of 
family  in  Holland  as  well  as  in  England,  was 
adapted  by  William  Aufield  for  the  use  of  his 
countrymen.  The  original  is  still  regarded  as  a 
standard  work,  though  discarded  by  the  schools. 
Both  the  French  and  English  are  of  the  antique 


and  Schoolmasters.  269 

cast,  of  course,  and  many  of  the  examples  and 
much  of  the  phraseology  are  obsolete;  but  the 
book  was  written  for  Frenchmen  and  translated 
for  Englishmen,  to  both  of  whom  the  speech  of 
these  days  would  have  seemed  at  least  equally 
strange,  and  proved  not  less  embarrassing. 

The  pages  of  Maupas,  as  he  is  presented  to 
us  in  his  English  dress,  acquire  an  oddity  and 
an  almost  humorous  side,  which  areabsentfrom 
the  French  text  itself;  as,  for  instance  : — 


"Of  making  Stop. 

"Hola,  ho  there,  prou  well,   well,    so  so;   assez   enough, 
euough;  demeure,  arreste,  stay,  stay,  budge  not." 

"Of  teeling  Pain. 

;'Aou,  haou,  aouf,  ah,  of,  alas.    The  same  words  will  serve 
in  English." 

"Of  Joy. 

"Gay,  deliait,    alaigrement,    heighday,    as    a   man    woud 
wish,  merrily  then,  * 


Claudius  Mauger  and  Paul  Festeau  were  two 
other  professors  at  a  somewhat  later  date,  who 
endeavoured  to  secure  patronage  for  their  me- 
thods and  books  by  throwing  special  tempta- 
tions in  the  way  of  customers.  The  former,who 
seems  to  have  been  resident  in  London,  intro- 


270      Schools  and  Schoolmasters. 

duced  into  his  pages  as  an  attractive  novelty  a 
series~of  Dialogues  illustrative  of  English  exploits 
by  land  and  sea,  as  well  as  of  contemporary 
French  history,  while  Festeau  baited  his  hook 
with  the  two  scarcely  reconcilable  assurances 
tha  this  plan  was  the  exactest  possible  forattain- 
ing  the  purity  and  eloquence  of  the  French 
tongue,  as  it  was  spoken  about  1660  in  the  Court 
of  France,  and  that  Blois,  his  native  place,  was 
the  city  " where  the  true  tone  of  the  French 
tongue  was  found  by  the  unanimous  consent 
of  all  Frenchmen." 


(    271     ) 


XIX. 

Foreigners'  English. 

I:  A  GOOD  deal  has  been  incidentally  heard 
of  the  habitual  infelicity  of  the  natives  of  other 
European  countries  where  it  has  been  a  question 
of  the  treatment  of  our  language  either  collo- 
quially or  with  a  literary  object.  This  was  a 
source  of  difficulty  which  must  have  been 
generally  appreciated;  but  no  one  appears  to 
have  essayed  to  come  to  the  succour  of  the 
distressed,  till  in  1578  Jacques  Bellot,  already 
mentioned,  and  the  author  of  a  French  Gram- 
mar printed  in  1578,  announced  in  1580  The 
English  Schoolmaster ',  for  teaching  strangers  to 
pronounce  English.  That  such  a  book  was  pub- 
lished is  probable  enough,  but  it  is  not  at 
present  known;  and  we  have  meanwhile  to 
content  ourselves  with  speculating  what  kind  of 


272  Schools,  School-Books, 

affair  such  an  undertaking  could  have  been, 
where  the  writer  was  a  foreign  teacher  so  igno- 
rant of  our  language  !  But  it  was  not  amiss 
for  Bellot  to  try  his  hand  in  the  absence  of 
any  other  adventurer ;  nor  was  it  till  after  the 
Restoration  that  a  second  experiment  was  made 
in  the  same  direction  by  James  Howell,  the 
tolerably  celebrated  author  of  the  Familiar 
Letters,  who  brought  out  in  1662  A  New 
English  Grammar,  prescribing  as  certain  rules 
as  the  language  will  bear,  for  foreigners  to 
learn  English.  This  was  nearly  a  century  after 
Bellot;  and  Howel  was  both  a  linguist  and  a 
scholar. 

Like  many  other  laudable  endeavours,  how- 
ever, the  proffered  help  was  not  much  appre- 
ciated ;  and  although  the  Germans,  Dutch,  and 
Russians  have  within  the  last  quarter  of  a 
century  made  remarkable  progress  in  the  study 
of  English,  the  French  and  other  Continental 
nations  remain  unable  or  indisposed  to  conquer 
their  ancientprejudices.  Doubtless,  the  closer 
affinity  between  the  languages  of  Germany  and 
the  Low  Countries  and  our  own  considerably 
facilitated  the  mastery  of  English  by  the  Teutonic 


and  Schoolmasters.  273 

community ;  and  it  was  principally  in  Flanders 
that  the  earliest  attention  was  paid  to  those 
highly  valuable  polyglot  hand-books  for  travel- 
lers and  students,  into  which  the  English,  as 
a  rule,  was  admitted  more  on  account,  probably, 
of  its  service  to  the  foreign  visitor  in  England 
than  for  the  sake  of  the  Englishman  abroad, 
as  had  been  the  case  with  certain  early  vocabu- 
laries and  primers  elsewhere  noticed. 

In  the  old  plays  the  foreigner  is  invariably 
introduced  making,  consciously  or  otherwise, 
the  most  alarming  havoc  in  our  vocabulary  and 
grammar ;  but  the  dramatist  seems,  as  a  rule, 
to  have  drawn  a  good  deal  on  his  own  fancy 
instead  of  borrowing  from  life;  and  such  is  the 
case,  it  must  be  said,  even  with  Shakespear's 
Dr.  Cams,  who  speaks  broken  English,  but 
hardly  a  Frenchman's  broken  English.  The 
Duke  de  Jar  many  of  the  same  writer  would 
probably  have  had  the  same  nondescript  gib- 
berish put  into  his  mouth  had  he  been  brought 
on  the  stage;  this  sort  of  dramatis  persona  was 
among  the  comic  effects. 

The  Mrs.  Plawnish  of  a  modern  novelist 
thought  that  bad  English  might  be  good  French; 


274         Schools,  School-Books, 

but  the  jargon  of  Cains  is  sui  generis;  he 
uhacks  our  English,"  as  mine  host  puts  it,  but 
not  naturally,  although  Shakespear  must  have 
had  the  opportunity  of  studying  such  a  character 
from  the  original.  But  he  even  confers  on  the 
French  doctor  in  the  Merry  Wives  the  very 
name  of  an  actual  English  one,  who  was  living 
in  his  boyhood,  and  who  was  not  merely  a  con- 
tributor to  literature,  but  a  writer  on  philological 
subjects;  so  that  those  who  had  been  acquainted 
with  the  real  Gains  were  apt  to  feel  some  mys- 
tification at  his  dramatic  presentment,  claim- 
ing a  nationality  which  did  not  belong  to 
him,  and  murdering  a  language  which  was  his 
own . 

As  regards  the  familiarity  of  the  French  and 
Germans  with  our  idiom,  the  position  is 
changed;  for  while  that  of  the  former  remains 
nearly  stationary,  that  of  Germany  has  grown 
more  accurate  and  more  general. 

II.  But  the  conversance  with  our  language  in 
former  times,  even  among  those  who  devoted 
their  attention  to  philology  and  instruction,  was 
excessively  scanty  and  inexact.  If  no  more  than 


and  Schoolmasters.  275 

a  bare  quotation,  example,  or  equivalent  in 
English  is  given,  the  solecisms  are  sometimes 
ludicrous  in  the  extreme;  and  this  branch  of 
the  subject  is  sufficiently  interesting  and  novel 
to  induce  me,  before  I  conclude  my  inquiry,  to 
shew  somewhat  farther  than  I  have  done  in  the 
account  of  the  foreign  professors  of  languages 
settled  in  London  during  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries,  the  ignorance  of  English 
exhibited  by  two  distinct  classes  of  writers, 
namely,  by  foreigners  occupying'  among  us  of 
old  the  position  of  tutors  or  teachers,  and  by 
the  authors  of  publications  designed  for  employ- 
ment by  ourselves  visiting  the  Continent,  or  by 
our  neighbours  coming  hither. 

The  notions  entertained  by  educated  profes- 
sional Frenchmen,  and  even  by  Hollanders  and 
Germans,  about  our  grammar  and  idiom  were 
from  the  outset  down  nearly  to  the  present  cen- 
tury of  the  vaguest  and  most  puerile  character. 
Perhaps  one  of  the  most  edifying  monuments  of 
this  inveterate  repugnance  to  the  acquisition  of 
so  much  as  the  alphabet  of  our  poor  tongue  is 
to  be  found  in  a  volume  printed  at  Niirnberg  so 
late  as  1744  under  the  title  Representation  of 


276  Schools,  School-Books, 

the  High-landers  ivho  arrived  at  the  Camp  of 
the  Confederated  Army,  1743,  where  beneath 
the  first  of  a  series  of  plates  occurs  the  eluci- 
dation :  "The  Highlanders  in  their  accostumes 
clothes  and  downwards  hanging  cloak."  The 
explanatory  description  of  the  next  engraving  is 
"A  High-lander  who  puts  on  his  cloak  about 
his  schoulders,  when  weather  is  sed  to  rain." 
These  solecisms  of  course  arose  from  the  in- 
competence of  the  foreign  artist  or  publisher,  or 
both;  but  even  where  an  ignorant  typographer 
in  a  Continental  town  was  employed  to  set  up 
an  English  book  by  the  author  himself,  the  lia- 
bility to  blunders  was  very  great,  and  we  are  not 
to  be  surprised  at  slips  of  the  press  in  such  a 
work  as  Bishop  Hooper's  Declaration  of  the  Com- 
mandments, printed  at  Zurich  in  1549,  when  at 
the  end  the  writer  apprises  us  that  "the  setters 
of  the  print  understand  not  one  word  of  our 
speech  !" 

The  most  diverting  illustrations  of  the  jargon 
which  was  intended  to  pass  for  good  conversa- 
tional English  abound  in  the  pocket-guides  and 
dictionaries,  of  which  some  went  through  seve- 
ral editions,  and  were  evidently  in  great  request 


and  Schoolmasters.  277 

by  the  sections  of  society  to  which  they  ap- 
pealed. One  of  them  is  an  octoglot  vocabu- 
lary, 1548,  and  a  second  a  series  of  Colloquies 
in  six  languages,  accompanied  by  a  dictionary, 
1576.  The  English  examples  in  the  latter  are 
highly  curious,  as  affording  an  insight  into  our 
language  as  it  was  spoken  at  that  date  by  foreign 
students  and  visitors;  and,  in  point  of  fact,  it  is 
hard  to  choose  between  the  two,  which  is  the 
more  remarkable.  Let  us  take  the  Preface  to 
the  earlier  publication  from  an  impression  of 
1631  before  me  :— 


"To  THE  READER. 

"Beloved  Reader  this  boocke  is  so  need  full  and  profit- 
able /  and  the  vsance  of  the  same  so  necessarie  /  that  his 
goodnes  euen  of  learned  men  /  is  not  fullie  to  be  praised  for 
ther  is  noman  in  France  /  nor  in  thes  Nederland  /  nor  in 
Spayne  /  or  in  Italic  handling  in  these  Netherlandes  Avhich 
hat  not  neede  of  the  eight  speaches  that  here  in  are  writen 
and  declared  :  Fer  whether  thad  any  man  doo  marchandise  / 
or  that  hee  do  handle  in  the  Court  /  or  that  hee  fo  lowe  the 
warres  or  that  hee  be  a  trauailling  man  /  hy  should  neede 
to  haue  an  interpretour  /  for  som  of  theese  eight  speaches. 
The  which  wee  considering  have  at  our  great  cost  and  to 
your  great  profite  /  brought  the  same  speaches  here  in  such- 
wise  to  gether  /  and  set  them  in  order  /  so  that  you  from- 
yence  fouath  shall  not  neede  eny  interpretour  /  but  shalbe 
able  to  speake  them  your  self/  .  .  ." 


278  Schools,  School-Books, 

An  extract  from  one  of  the  interlocutions 
must  suffice  : — 

"  D.  Peeter  /  is  that  your  sone  ? 

P.  Yea  it  is  my  sonne. 

D.  it  is  a  goodlie  childe.  God  let  him  al  wayes  prosper  in 
virtue. 

P.  I  thancke  you  coosen. 

D.  Doth  he  not  go  to  the  scole? 

P.  Yes  /  hee  learneth  to  speake  French. 

D.  Doth  hee?  it  is  very  well  done.  John/  can  you  well 
speake  French? 

J.  Not  very  well  coosen,  but  I  learne. 

D.  "Wher  go  you  too  schoole? 

J.  In  the  Lumbeardes  s treat. 

D.  Have  you  gon  long  too  schoole  ? 

J.  About  half  a  yeare." 

So  the  dialogue  goes  on,  and  there  is  a  series 
of  them. 


III.  A  second  exemplification  of  the  super- 
lative obstacles  which  persons  born  out  of 
England  have  at  all  periods  encountered  in  the 
endeavour  to  comprehend  on  their  own  part, 
and  render  intelligible  to  others,  our  insular 
speech,  is  taken  from  the  Italian  Grammar  of 
Henry  Pleunus,  printed  at  Leghorn  at  the  end 
of  the  seventeenth  century. 

Now,  here,  in  lieu  of  the  alleged  width  of 


and  Schoolmasters.  279 

acceptability,  which  meets  the  eye  in  the  travel- 
ler's pocket-dictionary  just  described,  we  get  a 
positive  assurance  that  the  author  was  a  master 
of  the  English  tongue;  and  it  may  be  predi- 
cated of  him  that,  compared  with  the  majority 
of  foreigners,  he  exhibits  a  proficiency  very  con- 
siderably above  the  average,  though  we  honestly 
believe  it  to  be  grossly  improbable  that  "every 
one  speaks  English  at  Legorne,"  as  he  says  in 
one  of  the  Anglo-Italian  dialogues.  There  can 
be  no  desire  to  be  hypercritical  in  judging  such 
a  production,  or  to  lay  stress  on  occasional  slips 
of  spelling  and  prosody;  but  the  English  of 
Pleunus  very  often  strikes  one— nor  is  it  sur- 
prising that  it  should  be  so — as  Italian  liter- 
ally rendered.  He  probably  never  attained  an 
idiomatic  phraseology;  and  one  would  have 
said  less  about  it,  had  it  not  been  for  that  sort 
of  professorial  assumption  on  the  title-page. 

Going  back  in  order  of  time,  I  shall  furnish 
some  specimens  of  the  tetraglot  History  of 
Aurelio  and  of  Isabel  Daughter  to  the  King 
of  Scotland,  translated  from  the  Spanish,  and 
printed  in  1556  at  Antwerp.  I  propose  to  quote 
a  passage  where  two  knights  in  love  with  Isabel 


280          Schools,  School-Books, 

propose  to  cast  lots  for  her  :— "I  fynde  none 
occasion  that  is  so  iuste,  that  by  the  same  lof 
you,  or  you  of  me  maye  complayne  vs  :  inas- 
much that  euery  one  of  vs  by  him  selfe  is 
ynoughe  more  bounde  vnto  the  lone,  that  he 
beareth  to  Isabell,  then  vnto  any  other  bounde 
of  frendshippe.  And  therfore  I  see  not,  that 
I  for  respecte  of  you,  nor  you  also  for  mine  to 
be  ought  to  withdraws  from  the  high  enterprise 
alreadie  by  vs  begonne.  Nor  in  likewise  might 
be  called  a  vertuouse  worke,  that  we  both  to- 
gether in  one  place  sould  displane  thelouingly 
sailes  [voilles  amour  euses  in  the  French  column], 
for  that  shoulde  be  to  defile,  that  so  great  be- 
twene  vs  and  more,  then  of  brother  conioyned 
frendship." 

Here  it  is  not  so  conspicuously  the  ortho- 
graphy that  is  at  fault,  as  the  composition  and 
syntax.  But  up  and  down  this  little  book,  too, 
there  are  some  drolleries  of  spelling.  The 
translator  from  the  Spanish  of  Juan  de  Flores, 
whoever  he  was  (a  Frenchman  probably),  under- 
stood French  and  Italian ;  but  surely  his  con- 
versance with  the  remaining  tongue  was  on  a 
par  with  that  of  the  majority  of  his  Continental 


and  Schoolmasters.  281 

fellow-dwellers  then,  before,  and  since;  and 
doubtless  his  printer  has  not  failed  to  contribute 
to  the  barbarous  unintelligibility  of  the  English 
text.  This  is  the  book  to  which  Collins  the 
poet  mistakenly  informed  Warton  that  Shake- 
spear  had  resorted  for  the  story  of  the  Tempest. 
But  a  far  stranger  monument  of  orthographical 
and  grammatical  heresies  exists  in  The  historijke 
Pvrtreatvres  of  the  woll  *  Bible,  printed  at  Lyons 
in  1553.  It  is  a  series  of  woodcuts,  with  a  qua- 
train in  English  beneath  each  picture  descrip- 
tive of  its  meaning,  and  is  introduced  by  an 
elaborate  epistle  by  Peter  Derendel  arid  an 
Address  from  the  printer  to  the  reader.  Both, 
however,  probably  proceeded  from  the  pen  of 

*  It  may  be  worth  while   to  note  that  the  use  ot  woll  for 
tvhole  was  not  an   unusual    type   of  orthography   and  pro- 
nunciation in  early  English.     Thus,  in  the  Interlude  of  th 
Four  Elements  (1519),  we  have  :— 

For,  as  I  said,  they  have  none  iron, 
Whereby  they  should  in  the  earth  mine, 
To  search  for  any  wore." 

And  in  the  Image  of  Hypocrisy,  part  3,  Robin  Hood  is  called 
Robyn  Whode,  Lord  Chancellor  Westbury  used  to  pro- 
nounce whole  in  the  same  way,  and  he  would  also  say  whot 
for  hot.  When  Mr.  Registrar  Hazlitt  was  engaged  with  him 
on  the  Bankruptcy  Bill,  he  remarked  more  than  once  :  "I 
am  sick,  Hazlitt,  of  the  woll  business." 


282  Schools,  School-Book^ 

Derendel,  who  was  doubtless  connected  with 
Pierre  Erondelle,  a  well-known  preceptor  in 
London  at  a  somewhat  later  date. 

The  verses  wrhich  occur  throughout  the 
volume  are  literal  translations,  presumably  by 
Erondelle,  from  the  French,  and  are  singular 
enough,  and  might  have  tempted  quotation  ; 
but,  eccentric  as  they  are,  they  are  completely 
thrown  into  the  background  by  the  prolegomena, 
and  more  especially  by  the  preface  purporting 
to  come  from  the  printer  of  the  work,  which  is 
the  common  set  of  blocks  relating  to  Biblical 
subjects, made  in  the  present  casejto  accompany 
an  English  letterpress. 

I  will  transcribe  only  the  commencement 
of  the  preface,  whoseever  it  may  be  :— "The 
affection  mine  all  waies  towarde  the  hartlie 
ernest,  louing  reader,  being  cotinuallie  com- 
maunded  of  the  dutie  of  mi  profession,  mainot 
but  dailie  go  about  to  satisfie  the  in  this,  withe 
thow  desirest  and  lookest  for  in  mi  vacation, 
the  withe,  to  mai  please  the,  I  wolde  it  were  to 
mi  minde  so  free  and  licentiouse  streched  at 
large,  as  it  is  be  the  mishappe  of  the  time 
restrained." 


and  Schoolmasters.  283 

t 

The  discovery  of  Moses  by  Pharaoh's  daugh- 
ter is  thus  poetically  set  forth  : — 

"The  kinges  daughter  fonde  him  in  great  pitie 
The  russhes  amonge,  withe  to  him  fauourable, 
As  god  did  please,  him  to  saue  thought  worthie, 
His  owne  mother  giuing  him  for  noorce  able." 

Once  more,  the  fall  of  Abimelech  in  Judges 
ix.  is  portrayed  after  the  ensuing  fashion  :  — 

"Hauing  killed  his  bretherne  on  a  stone, 
Abimelech  was  forced  ielde  the  ghoast  : 
For  besieging  with  for  warre  Thebes,  anon 
A  strocke  he  had,  of  a  woman  with  lost." 

The  spelling  and  the  syntax  in  these  examples 
are  equally  outrageous;  yet  they  are  possibly 
not  more  so  than  might  be  expected  from  per- 
sons unversed  in  the  intricacies  and  anomalies 
of  our  language.  But  the  point  is,  that  the 
undertaking  was  executed  for  the  special  behoof, 
not  alone  of  English  residents  abroad,  but  also 
of  English  students  of  sacred  history  at  home; 
for  there  was  nothing  of  the  class  at  that  time  in 
our  literature  or  our  art.  It  is  almost  incompre- 
hensible on  what  ground  English  was  selected, 
as  French  would  have  been  as  serviceable  to  the 
educated  reader  here,  while  the  Anglo-Gallic 
patois  must  have  proved  a  puzzle  to  all  alike. 

The  early  English  educational   books   pro- 


284      Schools  and  Schoolmasters. 

duced  by  foreign  printers  were  not  quite  in- 
variably so  wide  of  the  mark  in  an  idiomatic 
respect.  Some  of  them  were  doubtless  read  in 
proof  by  the  English  author  or  editor;  and  such 
may  have  been  the  case  with  a  version  of  the 
Short  Catechisme  of  Cardinal  Bellarmine  pub- 
lished in  1614  at  Augsburgh,  where  the  slips  do 
not  exceed  an  ordinary  Table  of  Errata. 

Now  and  then,  too,  the  writer  himself  was 
alone  responsible  for  the  eccentricities  which 
presented  themselves  in  his  book,  as  where 
Stanyhurst,  in  his  version  of  the  &ne-id,  pub- 
lished at  Leyden  in  1582,  renders  the  opening 
lines  of  Book  the  Second  thus  :— 

""With  tentive  list'ning  each  wight  was  setled  in  harckning  ; 
Then  father  ^Eneas  chronicled  from  loftie  bed  hautie. 
You  me  bid,  0  Princesse,  too  scarrifie  a  festered  old  scare, 
How  that  the  Troians  wear  prest  by  Grecian  armie." 

Here  it  was  the  idiosyncrasy  of  the  Briton 
which  reduced  a  translation  to  a  burlesque,  and 
disregarded  the  canons  of  his  own  language,  as 
well  as  taste  and  propriety  in  diction.  For  the 
entire  work  is  cast  in  a  similar  mould,  and  is  hete- 
rodox in  almost  every  particular;  some  passages 
are  too  grossly  absurd  even  for  an  Irishman  who 
had  spent  most  of  his  life  in  Belgium  or  Holland. 


(    285 


XX 

Origin  and  spirit  ot  Phonography — William  Bullokar  the 
earliest  regular  advocate  of  it— Charles  Butler— Dr. 
Jones  and  his  theorv  examined. 


I.  THE  phonetic  system  of  orthography,  which 

may  be  regarded  as  empirical  and  fallacious, 
only  forms  part  of  such  an  inquiry  as  the  pre- 
sent by  reason  of  the  presence  in  our  earlier 
literature  of  a  few  books  which  were  apparently 
designed,  more  orless,  for  educationalpurposes. 
The  fundamental  theory  of  the  promoters  of 
this  principle,  both  in  former  times  and  in  our 
own,  seems  to  have  been  that  the  sound  should 
govern  the  written  character,  and  that  all  laws 
of  philology  and  grammar  should  defer  to  popu- 
lar pronunciation.  It  is,  of  course,  begging  the 
question,  in  the  first  place;  and  one  of  the 
warmest  enthusiasts  on  the  subject  admits  that 
the  very  pronunciation,  which  is  the  product  of 


286  Schools,  School-Books, 

sound,  and  on  which  he  relies,  differs  in  different 
localities. 

The  writers  on  behalf  of  phonetics  possessed , 
no  doubt,  their  own  honest  convictions;  but 
they  have  at  no  period  succeeded  in  carrying 
with  them  any  appreciable  number  of  disciples. 
Between  1580  and  1634,  William  Bullokar  and 
Charles  Butler  endeavoured  at  various  dates  to 
establish  their  peculiar  creed;  but  it  never 
gained  footing  or  currency,  and  its  influence 
has  left  no  trace  on  our  language,  except  in  the 
literary  or  calligraphic  essays  of  persons  unable 
to  read  and  write,  or  in  one  or  two  isolated 
cases  where  the  new  heresy  for  the  moment 
infected  a  man  like  Churchyard,  the  old  soldier- 
poet,  for  on  no  other  hypothesis  can  we  explain 
the  uncouth  spelling  of  his  little  poem  on  the 
Irish  Rebellion  of  1598,  which  is  an  orthogra- 
phical abortion,  out  of  harmony  with  the  usual 
style  of  the  author,  and  surpassing  in  foolish- 
ness the  wildest  suggestions  of  the  professed 
adherents  and  supporters  of  the  doctrine. 

Bullokar  published  his  large  Grammar  in 
1580,  and  his  Brief  one  in  1586;  and  he  also 
put  forth  in  1585  a  version  of  ^Esop's  Fables, 


and  Schoolmasters.  287 

the  utle  of  which  is  a  curiosity  : — u.Esopz 
Fablr,  in  Tru  Ortography  with  Grammar-Notz. 
Her-vntoo  ar  also  iooined  the  Short  Sentencz 
of  the  Wyz  Gato  :  both  of  which  Autorz  are 
translated  out-of  Latin  intoo  English  by  William 
Bullokar. 

Gev'  God  the  praiz 
That  teacheth  all  waiz. 
When  Truth  trieth, 
Erroor  flieth." 

Butler  became  a  convert  in  later  life  to  the 
views  previously  entertained  and  promulgated 
by  Bullokar,  bringing  out  a  third  edition  of  his 
History  of  Bees  in  1634,  adapted  to  the  new 
standard;  and  in  his  English  Grammar,  pub- 
lished a  twelvemonth  before,  he  enunciated  the 
same  orthographical  dogmas.  He  was  of  Mag- 
dalen College,  Oxford,  and  prepared,  as  early 
as  1600,  a  Latin  text-book  on  Rhetoric  for  the 
use  of  his  College.  This  was  more  popular  and 
successful  than  his  phonetic  excursus,  and  is 
quoted  even  still  now  and  again,  because  it 
contains  a  slight  allusion  to  Shakespear. 

But  perhaps  the  most  strenuous  and  elaborate 
attempt  to  reform  us  in  this  particular  direction 
was  made  by  Dr.  Jones,  who  drew  up  a  Practical 


288  Schools,  School-Books, 

Phonography,  "Or  the  New  Art  of  Rightly 
Spelling  and  Writing  Words  by  the  Sound 
thereof,"  for  the  use  of  the  Duke  of  Gloucester, 
son  of  Queen  Anne,  somewhere  before  1701,  in 
which  year  he  communicated  the  fruit  of  his 
researches  to  the  public.  His  description  of 
the  art  as  a  new  one  must  be  interpreted  by  his 
ignorance  of  the  previous  labours  of  Bullokar 
and  Butler,  and  as  a  proof  that  the  proposal  had 
met  with  no  response;  and  the  fact  that  the 
Doctor's  own  volume  is  almost  unknown  may 
be  capable  of  a  similar  explanation. 

I  have  no  means  of  judging  what  kind  of 
reception  was  accorded  to  Dr.  Jones  at  the 
time;  but  the  tone  of  that  gentleman's  Preface 
was  certainly  not  propitiatory  or  diffident;  for 
he  freely  speaks  of  the  miserable  ignorance  of 
the  world  and  of  his  own  condescension  to  the 
undertaking,  in  order  to  remove  or  enlighten 
it ;  and  yet,  from  another  point  of  view,  he 
addressed  himself  to  the  task  of  instituting  a 
grammatical  code  based  on  that  very  ignorance 
of  which  he  complains.  For  you  have  not  to 
travel  beyond  the  introductory  remarks  to 
stumble  on  the  following  directions  for  the 


and  Schoolmasters.  289 

pronunciation  and  ergo  the  spelling  of  half-a- 
dozen  familiar  words  and  proper  names:—  Aron, 
bant  (bought),  Mat'r,  Dixnary,  jmis  (pays),  and 
Wooster ;  and  at  the  same  time  on  the  very 
threshold  of  his  text  he  allows  "that  English 
Speech  is  the  Art  of  signifying  the  Mind  by 
human  Voice,  as  it  is  commonly  used  in  Eng- 
land, (particularly  in  London,  the  Universities, 
or  at  Court)." 

Dr.  Jones  was  a  learned  and  well-read  medi- 
cal man,  and  the  monument  of  his  erudition 
and  scholarship  lies  before  me  in  the  shape  of 
this  portentous  volume  of  144  pages,  which,  if 
the  young  Duke  had  not  died  from  another 
cause,  might  have  proved  fatal  to  him  and  to 
his  royal  mother's  hopes  of  a  successor  in  the 
Stuart  line. 

That  our  national  pronunciation  is  slovenly 
and  against  philological  laws,  nobody  will  pro- 
bably deny;  but  it  would  not  be  an  improve- 
ment or  a  gain  to  corrupt  our  written  language 
by  levelling  it  down  to  our  spoken  one. 


INDEX. 


ABACUS,  209-15. 
A.  B.  G.,  88,  209-15,  234-7. 
Abingdon  School,  132.  183. 
Absence  from  school  severely 

treated,  108-'.). 
Academies,  private, 143-4, 170- 

4,  178-83. 
Accomplishments   taught  at 

the   Miisceum     Minervce, 

170-4. 
at  a  private  academy 

in  1676,  178-9. 
Aculastus,  127,  257. 
Add i son's  Letter  from  Italy, 

203. 

yEsop,  48,  99,  139,  141.  287. 
Ainsworh,  Robert,  229-30. 
Aldus,  76. 
Ale,  140. 
Alexander  de  Villa  Dei,  45-6, 

243-4. 

Alfric,   Archbishop,  his  Col- 
loquy, 30. 

Allibone,  John,  12.  ' 
Alphabet,  Jonson's  remarks 

on  our,  234-6. 
Alphabet  am    Latino-Angli- 

cum,  1543,  124. 
America,  33-4. 
American  Plantations,  17.  84. 
Amxvell,  51-3,  200. 
Andreas,  Bernardus,  68, 102. 


Andrew  of  Wyntown,  184. 

Anglo-Gallic  dictionary,  35. 
—  vocabulary,  255. 

Anglo-Latin  literature,  72. 

Anniquil.  John,  schoolmaster 
and  grammarian, 11 ,51-3, 91 

Apollo  Shroving,  1627,144. 

Apothecaries,    early,    ignor- 
ance of,  105. 

Appleby,  107. 

Appositions,  138. 

Aristotle,  244. 

Arithmetic,  163-4. 

Arthur,  Prince,  son  of  Henry 
VI  [.,68, 102. 

Arthusius,  Gotardus,  155. 

Ascensius,  Jod.  Badius,  78-80, 

Ascham,  Roger,  12,  19,  196. 
220-3. 

As  in  prcesenti,  216. 

Astrology,  157-8. 

Astronomy,  judicial,  133, 157. 

Aufield,  YV.,  268-9. 

Aurelio  and  fsabel,  History 
of,  1556,279-81. 

Aviarium,  227-8. 

Aylesbury,  160. 


BACON,  Francis,  177. 
Baker,  Humphrey,  163-4. 
Bailey,  Old,  165.  " 


Index. 


Balbus,  Johannes,  50,  225. 
Bale,  Bishop,  98. 
Bales,  Peter,  '165. 
Barchhy,  John,  73. 
Barclay,  Alexander,  12. 
Beaune,  256. 
Bebelius  of  Basle,  81. 
Beer.  140. 
Bellarmine's  (Cardinal)  C<ttc- 

cliism,  284. 

Bellomayus,  Johannes,  73. 
Bellot.  Jacques;  267-8,  271-2. 
Helium  Urnnnnuticale,  82. 
Berkshire,  160. 
Belhnal  (liven,  133,  170-1. 
Bible,  the,  in  schools.  205-8. 
Black   E<i(jla    in    St.    Paul's 

Churchyard,  1 15. 
Blue  Coat  School,  253. 
Hoard    Schools,   wise   policy 

of  the,  207. 

Bodtey.  Sir  Thomas,  10-11. 
Bodmin,  161. 
Bookbinders,   H'i-15,  26Y. 
Horde,  Andiv\v,  210-11. 
Boulogne.  2iiii. 
Bow  Lane,  '156. 
Boy-bishop  a  I.  Si.  Paul's,  109. 
Bracebridge,  Thojnas,  180. 
Brackley,  Wavn  dele's  school 

at,  11." 

Bread,  nianchet,  110. 
Bri-M.  Timothy,  177. 
Brightland,  John,  131. 
Browne,  Alexander,  175. 
Buchanan,  George,    117,  106. 
Buckinghamshire,  160. 
Bullokar,  William,  28:;-7. 
Buries,  Edward,  131. 
Burney.  Charles,  23. 
Busby,  Dr  ,  18,  21-3. 
Buskins,  265. 
Butler,  Charles,  286-7. 
Butter,  sweet,  in  1652,  140. 


CAIUS,  or  Kay,  John,  2V7-8, 

273-4. 

Calligraphy,  165,  175-6. 
Cambridge,  243-4. 


Canterbury,  241. 

Carmichael,  James,  187. 

Carving,  171 

Cnssilis,  Gilbert,  Earl  of,  117- 

18 

Catechism,  the.  207-8,  216. 
Cathedral  schools,  7-9,  113. 
Catherine  of  Aragon,  118. 
Cato,  Dionysius,  i'8,  287 
Caxton,  W  ,  his  prose  Jf//e/(/. 

95-6. 
Cecil,  W.,  Lord  Burleigh,  19, 

220. 

Chancellor  of  St.  Paul's.  113. 
Chapman,  Ctoige,  2C.2. 
Charactery,  177. 
Charles  II,  and  Dr.  Busby,  21. 
Charterhouse,  76. 
Chaucer,  223. 

( :heke,  Si  r  John,  82,221, 247-8. 
Chichest.-r,  106. 
Childei-mass,  100. 
Christ's  Hospital,  120,  135-6, 

258-4. 

Christ-cross-row,  210-11. 
C.hnrch,    salulary    inlluence 

of  the  early,  5  etscq. 
Churchyard," Thomas,  2Pfi. 
Cicero.  IS,  in.  t)6  ft  aeq.,  110, 

139,  141-2. 

Ciceronian  Academy,  219. 
Cirence^ter,  10'S. 
City  ot  London  School,  135, 

•204. 
Civil  "War  in  Great  Britain, 

influence  of  the,  190,  200. 
Classic  authors  read  in  En- 
gland in  15'20,  88. 
Classic  authors  in  15C3,  221. 

used  at  St.  Paul's,  110. 

at  Merchant  Taylors', 

&c.,  251,  2534. 
• at  a  provincial  school 

in  1788,  181. 

by  ladies,  199,  203. 

attempt  to  supersede, 

in  1582,  231-2. 

Clerical  control  over  educa- 
tion, 3,  5-7,  190-2,195-208. 
Cocker,  Edward,  175-6. 


Index. 


293 


Coleridge,  S.  T.,  136. 
Colet,   Dean,  8,  103,  108-14, 

120-2. 

Collation    at   Merchant  Tay- 
lors'   on    Probation    Day, 

140. 
College  education  inScotland, 

former  cost  of,  ISO. 
Collins,  W.,  2M. 
Collins's  Oriental  Plclofjucs, 

203. 

Columbus.  C..  33. 
Comparative  study  of  Latin 

and  English,  72. 
Conventual  schools,  C'-7. 
Coo]:ei's     T/:<'S((tu'tis,     226, 

228-9. 

Corderius.  M..  i:-;9. 
Corn  Aval  I,  Kvl. 
Corporal     punishment      in 

schools,  1P-26,  30. 

—  polilions  to  Parlia- 
ment against  it,  25. 

Coster,  Laurem-p.  o'i. 
Cox,  Leonard,  123. 
Croft,  Richard,  19'i. 
Groke,  Richard.  2Vr. 
Cromwell,  Oliver,  101-2. 

—  Thomas,      Karl     of 
Essex.  227.  257. 


DAME   SCHOOLS,   19C-7,   202, 

203. 

Dancing,  171,  178. 
Davies's    Welsh    Grammar, 

233. 

Decalogue,  120-1 . 
De  Conscribernlis  Epistolis, 

by  Erasmus,  103-4. 

an     anecdote   about 

the  book,  104 
De  Corro,  Anthonio.  153. 
De  Flores,  .hum.  27! '-Si. 
Delamothe,  G.,  2€6. 
Denny,  Sir  Anthony,  22(i. 
Derendel,  Peter,  :>  1 . 
Desainliens,  Claude,  261-6. 
Despauterius,  46. 
Dialogues  of  Lucian  transla- 


ted into  Latin  by  Erasmus, 

100. 
in  English  and  French 

258-9. 
in  English  and  Italian, 

263-5,  279. 
Dickens's    Mrs.     Plawnish, 

273. 
Dictionaries,  early,  27  el  sea. , 

225-30. 
Dictionary,  definition,  of  a, 

32. 

—  of  Johannes    de   Gar- 
land ia,  32-4. 
Discipline,  severity  of  early, 

17-26,  10M2. 
Doctrinal?  of  Alexander  de 

Villa  Dei,  4")-(;.   ls<;. 
Donatus.  .Klius.  'iC-9,  TO,  86, 

121,  184 

Dorchester,  183. 
Dome,  John,  39,  87-9. 
Dorset   Street,    Spitalfields, 

157. 
D'Ouvilly,  SirBalthazar  Ger- 

bier,  170-4. 
Drawing,  171,  175. 
Dugard.  William,  140,  145-9. 
Duncan,  Dr.,  219, 
Du  Ploiche.  Pierre.  258-61. 
Dutch  language,  153, 171, 173. 
DuWes  orDewes,  Giles,  117, 

257. 
Dyonisie    de    Mountchensy, 

36. 


EAST  INDIES,  155. 
Edward  the  Confessor,  17. 

VI.  Vl'23-6,  135. 

Elizabeth,   Queen,   126,  130, 

230-2,  241. 

Elyot,  Sir  Thomas,  226-9. 
Endowed   grammar  schools 

of  Edward  VI  ,  126. 
English  school-books  printed 

abroad,  85,  273. 
Erasmus.  Desiderius,99,103, 

118,  120,  127,  244-5,  247. 


294 


Index. 


Erondelle,Piei  re,2CG-7.281-2. 
Eton,  18-19,  21. 

Gardiner,  Bishop,  82,  247-8. 
Gascoigne,  George,  248. 
Gemma  Vocabulorum,  225. 
Geneva,    English   residents 
at,  10. 
Gentleman's    Calllnq.    The, 
13. 
German  influence,  197. 
language,  152,  171,173. 
population    of   Riga, 
217. 
Germany,  222,  274. 
Gloucestershire's        Desire 
1642,  193. 
Gold,  writing  with,  176. 
Colden    Bali    in    St.    Paul's 
Churchyard,  262. 
Goldsmith's  Alley,  94. 
Goldsmith'  sPoetns  for  Younq 
Ladies,  202-3. 
Gradus  comparationum,  73. 
Grammar  schools,  endowed, 
126. 
Grammatica  Initialis,  1509, 
14. 
Grant,  Edward,  251. 
Granlham,  Lincolnshire,  252. 
Grantham,  Thomas,  253. 
Gray's  Inn,  248. 
Greek  language,  241-54. 
Greek    language,    sludv    of 
the,  at  Oxford,  101-5,  244. 

Etymology,  151. 
Euripides,  248,  254. 
Evans,  Sir  Hugh,  180-1. 
Exchange,  Royal,  164. 

FARRIFRY,  2C3. 
Faversham,  161. 

Feckeiihain,  194. 
Female  influence,  200-8. 
Festeau.  Paul,  269-70. 
Fish,  76-7. 
Fisher,  Bishop,  24^-3. 
Fitzjames,  Bishop,  106. 
.  .  j  ord  Chief  Justice  108 

Fitzstephen,  W.,  15. 
Flageolet,  l',5. 
Flanders,  273. 
Florence,  245. 
Florio,  John,  155. 
Foreign    influence,    3,    38  et 
seq  ,  66,  170-4. 

273-84. 

Founders  of  schools  at  the 
Reformation,  10J. 
Fox,  John,  125. 
Free  school  at  Oxford,  10. 
Free  school  at  Feckenham, 
194. 
French  dame-schools,  197. 

by  Erasmus,  100,  243-5. 

266-70. 

schools,    141-2,    161,     251, 

253-4. 

Du  \Ves,  117. 

tors,  153. 
Greeting,  Thomas,  175. 
Grey,  Lady  Jane,  222. 
Grocyn,  W.,  102,  244-5. 
Guarini  of  Verona,  86-7. 
Guarna,  Andrea.  82. 

HADLKFGH,  Suffolk,  144. 
Hall,  Arthur,  of  Grantham, 
252. 
Harmar,  Samuel,  193-4. 

274,  2fcO  et  seq. 

seq.,  270. 

v>       i     •        cV  °lr>       T 

Churchyard.  116. 
Frobenius,  76. 
Frorne  —  frozen,  76. 

GADBURY,  John,  158. 

Index. 


295 


Hart  Street,  157. 
Hawkins,  William.  I'i4. 
Hayne,  Thomas,  210,  238-9. 
Hazlitt,  William,  1S1-2. 
Mr.    Registrar,     281, 

note. 

Hebrew,  142,  153,  108. 
Henry  VII.,  68,  245. 
• VIII.,   68,  123-4,   126, 

128,  133,  143,  198,  205,  220- 

7,  246-7,  257-8. 
Hereditary     succession     of 

teachers,  84. 
Herefordshire,  162. 
Hero  and  Leandcr   of  Mu- 

seeus,  253. 
Herodotus,  253. 
Hertfordshire,  131. 
Highgate,  200. 
Highlanders,  276. 
Hills,  Richard,  136. 
Holidays,  ancient  school,  15- 

17. 
Holofernes,Shakespears,  99, 

155. 

Holt,  John,  70-1. 
Hohvell,  John,  157. 
Homer,  250,  252-4. 
Hoole,  Charles,  93-4. 
Hooper,  Bishop,  276. 
Horace,  64,  941. 
Herman,  William,  73-8,  129. 

222. 
his    literary    quarrel 

with  Lily  and  others,  81-2. 
extracts     from     his 


Vulyariu,  74-8. 
Horn-book,  211,  212. 
Hours  of  the    Virgin,  1514, 

115. 

Ho  well,  James,  233. 
Hume,  Alexander,  131,  187. 
Hundred  Merry  2 
Hunt,  Leigh,  135. 


ILLUSTRATED      children's 

books,  159. 
Indian  abacus,  215. 
Inglis,  Esther,  176. 


Ingulphus,  17-18. 

Ink,  76. 

Instruction,  mediaeval  met- 
hod of,  14,  30. 

Ipswich,  Wolsey's  school  at, 
107,  119-20. 

Ireland,  131,189,284,  286. 

Italian  influence, 3, 86-7, 197, 
242-3,  245,  261-6,  278-9. 

language,  152  el  seq, 

2J1-6. 

hand,  177. 


JEROME,  St.,  46,  110-11. 
Jesus    College,    Cambridge, 

11-12. 

Johnny  Quce  Genus,  216. 
Johannes  de  Garlandia,  32-4, 

83. 

Johnson,  Thomas,  212. 
Jones,  Dr.,  287-9. 
Jonson,  Benjamin,  177,  233- 

6. 
Julius  Csesar,  95-6. 


KEN,  Bishop,  137. 

Kent,  161. 

Kinaston,   Sir  Francis,   173, 

233. 
Kingston-upon-Hull,  106. 

.  Thames,  252. 

Kimvejmersh,  Francis,  248. 
Knox,  John,  185,  194. 
Kyffin,  Maurice,  92. 


LADIES,  175. 

—  colleges  for,  2QOelseq. 
Ladies'  lapdogs,  77. 
Lamb,    Charles,     136,    200, 

253-4. 

Mary,  200. 

Lancashire,  108. 
Lane,  A.,  162-3. 
Languages,  living,  taught  in 

England,  152  et  seq.,  1£8 

171,  173. 
Latimer,  Bishop,  221. 


296 


Index. 


Latin  language.  72,  152,  155, 
162-3,  229-30. 
authors   used    at   St. 
Paul's,  100-10. 
•  barbarous  or  low  '^8 

Oxford,  11-12,  51,   70,  84-5, 
132,  152,  204. 
Ma  kins,  Bathsua.  200. 
Malagasy  language,  155. 
Malavan  language   155 

Laureateship,  ancient,  67. 
Lawrence  Pountnev,St.,  136. 
Leghorn,  English  at,  278-9. 
Lempriere,   Dr.,  182. 
Leominster,  162. 
Letler-xvriting,  103. 
Levins,  Peter,  22S. 
Lexicons.  225-30. 
Libraries,  parochial,   propo- 
sed in  Scotland,  ls'5-(5. 
Liehfield,  (0. 
Lite.    medi.M'val.    illustrated 
bv    'incienl    ^chool-books 

Malmesbury,  241. 

Manchester"  106,  132,180. 
Manchet  bread,  140. 
Mantuan,  Prologues  of,  98. 
Mary,    Princess,  afterwards 
Qiieen,  117,  125,  257. 
Manger,  Claudius,  2C-9-70. 
Man  pas,  Charles,  2O--9. 
May-Ftewer,  the.  s:4. 
Maypoles,  192. 
.Mayor  of  London,  77. 
Meals,  graces  at,  259. 

31-2.  75-8. 
—  English,    of  the  16th 
and   17th   centuries   illus- 
trated, 259  et  seq. 
Li)  1  v.AVil  lia  in  .the  astrologer, 
158. 
Lilv.  George,  107. 
William.  41.  (0,81,  84-5, 
118-22.  124,  139,  150-2,  161, 
1K6.  216.  2/i  2,  2  45,  247. 
Linacre,  Thomas,  102,  1  17-18, 
244-5,  257 
Lincolnshire,  158. 
Littleton,  Adam,  229. 
Logic,  133-4. 
Lombard  Street,  278. 
London,  localities  of,  76,  77- 
8,  93-4.  113-16,156,162,  164- 

Medulla  Grammaticcs,  225. 
Mercers'  School,  135. 
Merchant    Taylors'    School, 
1C',  21,    132,    136-42,  144-9, 
223-4; 
Middlesex,  131. 
Mile-Kml  Green,  162. 
Military  science,  171. 
Mill,:  for  Children,  70. 
Milton,  John,  158-9. 
Miracle  of  the  fishes,  108. 
Monastic       or      conventual 
schools,  6-7. 
Montefiore,  Sir  Moses,  143. 
3/o;?  umenta      Franciscuna 
quoted,  114. 
More,    Sir    Thomas,    65,  70, 
112.  2'i6. 

5,  258-9,  2C1-2,  278. 
proposed    University 
of,  in  1647-8,  166-9. 
Longlond,    Dr.,     Bishop     of 
Lincoln,  151 
Lord's  Prayer,  120-1. 
Lofhbury  Garden,  93,  156. 
Louth,  Lincolnshire,  158. 
Lucian,  101.  254. 
LudusLudi  Litterarii,  1672, 
144. 
Lvdgate,  John,   37,  42-3.  99. 

Morris  dances,  192. 
Morris,  Richard,  45. 
Motto   of  Merchant  Taylors' 
School,  147. 
Mountjoy,  Lord  William,103. 
Mrs.  Leicester's  school,  200. 
Mugwell  or  Monkwell  Street 
156. 
Muleaster.  Richard  ,138,223-4, 
Mules,  265. 
Murray,  Lindley,45,  llP-19. 
Mnsnei(,)n  Minereo'  at  Beth- 
nal  Green,  133,  170-4. 

Index. 


297 


GUS,  253, 
Music  taught  in  the  conven- 
tual schools,  7. 

_  to  ladies  by  private 
masters,  175. 


NASH,  Thomas,  quoted.  19-20. 
Neckam,  Alexander.  32. 
Neo-Hellenic,  249,  253. 
Netherlands.  273,  279. 
STe \vinan,  Thomas,  92. 
S'iger,  Franciscus,  103. 
Nominate,  the,  27  et  scq. 
S'on  sense-verses,  141. 
Norths  of  Kirtling,  the,  199. 
sowell,  Alexander,  Dean  of 
St.  Paul's,  138. 


CCLAXD,  Christopher,  230-2. 
Qd  Brompton,  140. 
Cral  instruction,  14. 
G'tus     Vocabalarum.     225, 

22S. 

0\d in,  Cesare,  153. 
CHd,  95. 

Oven,  Lewis,  153. 
Oxford,    NVaynflete's    school 

i.  11,  12,  ol,  CO.  68. 
-J —  ancient     educational 

Machinery  at,    17,    133-4, 

— L  Grammar  of.  1709,120. 


PAC,  Richard,  102,  247. 
Pad  a.  245. 

Palstave,   John,   123,    127, 

22$ 

Pantfles,  2C5. 
Papej.  manufacture  of,  75. 

. 4  different  sizes  of,  75. 

. \ royal,  264. 

Wotting,  264. 

Paris  hder Philip  Augustus, 

33-4J 
Parishehurch.es  in  London, 

78.  T 


194. 


.  schools   in    England-,. 
-  in      Scotland, 


185. 

libraries  proposed  in 

Scotland,   185. 

Partridge,  John,  158. 
Parvula,  69-70. 
Parvulonun  Institutio,  52. 
Penton,  Stephen,  215. 
Pepys,  S  ,  157.  175. 

—  Mrs.,  175. 

Percy,  Bishop,  7. 

Peroftus,     Nicolaus,     39-40, 

225. 
Pes  (foot)  derived   from  the 

Greek,  33. 

Ph(t>nisso3  of  Euripides, 248. 
Philelphus,  Franciscus,  103. 
Phonography,  237,  285-9. 
Pictorial  vocabulary,  35. 
Play-days  v.  holy-days,  16. 
Pleunus,  Henry," 27£-9. 
Poggius  (Po^gib  Bracciolin 

99. 
Polyglot  vocabularies,  153-4, 

27C-80. 

Pope,  Alexandei1,  205. 
Popular  literature  of  1520, 88. 
Portraitures   of   the    Bible. 

1553,  281-3, 

Portuguese  language,  153. 
Prayers   at   public  schools, 

137. 

Prices  of  provisions,  65. 
Prideaux,  M.,  132,  162,  239. 
Primer,    National,   of  1540, 

123  £t  seq. 

Salisbury,  121. 

for  children,  211,  214. 

Primrose,  Dr.,  Goldsmith's, 

81,  2(;5. 

Printing,  notices  relative  to, 
75. 

Printing-press,  private,  atta- 
ched to  Merchant  Taylors' 
School,  148-9. 

Probation-Day,  139-42. 

Professors  of  foreign  lan- 
guages, 153. 


298 


Index. 


Promptorius  Parvnlorum. 
225. 

Pronunciation  of  Greek  and 
Latin,  248-51. 

Propria  quoc  mar  Hits,  270. 

Proprietary  schools,  162, 
1954J.  202.  206. 

Protestant  refugees  at  Gene- 
va, 10. 

A.  B.  C.,  first,  1553, 

212. 

Provincial  schools,  132,  160 
179-183. 

culture,  201-2. 

Pumps,  265. 

Punctuation,  early,  79-?0. 

Putnev,  200. 


QUARTER-wages,  148-9. 
Quinsy,  Mrs.,  202. 

RABBARDS,  R.,  165. 

Rabelais,  lO'i. 

Reading,  160. 

Reference,    early   books  of, 

239-40. 
Religious  character  of  early 

teaching,  6-8. 

Remedies  orholy-days,15-17. 
Reyriell,  Sir  Richard,  162. 

Sir  Thomas,  162. 

Rhetoric,  132. 
Rhodes,  242,  245. 
Richmond  and  Derby,  Mar- 
garet, Countess  of,  217. 

Riding  the  Great  Horse,  171. 

Riga,  107. 

Rightwise.  John,  216. 

Ripley's  Compound  of  Al- 
chemy, 165. 

Robertson,  Thomas,  of  York 
81,  150-2. 

Rochelle,  256. 

Roman  Antiquities  of  Pri- 
deaux,  132. 

of  Adams,  240. 

coins,    weights,    and 

measures,  230. 


Rome,  245. 
Rood,  Theodore,  51. 
Roper,  Margaret,  199. 
Rose,  Manor  of  the,  136. 

sign  of  the,  258-9. 

Koulston,  Staffordshire,  106. 
Ruddiman,  Thomas,  187-9. 
Russian  abacus,  215. 


SACKVILLE,  Sir  Richard,  19. 

220-2, 

—  Mr. Robert,  221. 
Salaries  of  schoolmasters  ir 

1561,  138. 
School   children  (parish)  h 

1642,  194. 
School  of  fish,  76. 
Schools,    monastic    or    cor- 

ventual,  6-7. 

Schools,  cathedral,  7-9, 113 
established  in  Englard 

1502-15,  105-8,  210. 

byEdwardV., 

126. 

Schoolmaster,   the    old  aid 
ne\v,  23-6. 

of  Old  St.  Paul's,  43- 

14, 

Schoolmasters     under    the 

Common  wealth,  191-2. 
Scogin,   Jests  of,  210-11. 
Scot,  Alexander,  251 
Scotland,  131,  184-9,  195197, 

205,  279. 

Scotus,  Joh.,  244. 
Scrooby,  Lincolnshire,^. 
Secularisation    of    teaaing, 

204-8. 
Shakespear,  W.,  99, 15,177, 

180-1,  201-2,  281. 

his    Dr.     Caiif   and 

Duke  de  Jar  many, 113-^. 

Ship  of  Fools.  12. 
Shirley,  James,  237-8 
Shoemaker,  dialogueA'ith  a, 

in  1597,  2(15. 
Short  Introduction  cGram- 

mar,  by  Lily,  84. 
Shropshire,  173,  1812. 


Index. 


299 


181-2. 

181-2. 

Skinners'     school    at    Ton- 

Sulpicius,  Johannes,  40-4,  50. 

bridge,  135,  251. 

Surrev,  200. 

Smith    Sir  Thomas   247 

"  Lord   "3 

Smith's  series  of  dictionaries 

Survival    of  early     English 

&c.,  240. 

system  of  holidays  in  the 

Sneezing,  folklore  of,  78. 

United  States,  17". 

Somersetshire,  106. 

Sutton  Colfield,  106. 

Somerville,  Mrs.,  199. 

Syms,  Christopher,  163, 

Spalding,  Augustine,  155. 

Spanish  language,  153. 

Speech-Dav      at     Merchant 

TABLES   of   Grammar,    by 

Taylors','  143. 

John  Fox,  125. 

Speeches     at     breaking-up, 

Teachers,  foreign,  5,  66. 

143-5. 

Terence,  46,  51,  90-4. 

Spelling  A.  B.  C.,'1590,  212. 

Testament,  Greek,  141. 

Spitalfields,  157. 

Theology  in  schools,  205-8. 

Staffordshire,  106-7. 

Thucydides,  252. 

Stage-plays  in  1654,  192. 

Tiptoft,  John,  Earl  of  Wor- 

Stanbridge, John,  11,  39,  44, 

cester,  (Hi. 

53-9,  71,  122. 

Tom  Thumb's  Alphabet,  159. 

Standish,  John,  242. 

Tombridge,  Skinners'  School 

Stuns    puer    ad    mensatn  , 

at,  135,  251. 

42-3. 

Tree  of  Knowledge,  the,  13. 

Stany  hurst's  Virgil,  284. 
Sterne's  Sentimental  Jour- 

Trinity Lane,  258-9. 
Tumbler,  a  dog,  77. 

ney,  267. 

Tunstall,  Bishop,  102. 

St.  Martin's-le-Grand,  114. 

Turner,  Dr.,  105. 

St.  Mary-le-Bow,  114. 

Tusser,  Thomas,  18-19. 

St.  Mai'v  Wike,  Devonshire, 

Tutors,  161-3. 

107. 

St.  Paul's  Church,  77. 

Churchyard      115-16 

UDALL,  Nicolas,  19,  21. 

156,  261-2. 

Union,    educational    results 

School  (old)   8  113 

of  the,  3. 

(Colet'c)     100 

United  States    svstem  of  ho- 

et seq.    120-2,    132-3,    204, 

lidays  in  the,  F7. 

216,  223,  242. 

University  ot   London,  pro- 

Stock wood,  John,  251. 

posed,  in  1647-8,  166-9. 

Stratlbrd-on-Avon,  181,  194. 

Strong,  Nathaniel,  156. 

Studies  at  the  Musoeum  Mi- 

VACATION,  modern,  not  for- 

nervoe, 171-2. 

merly  understood,  16. 

Sturmius,  Johannes,  221. 

Valpy's     Greek     Grammar, 

Subjects  taught  in  mediaeval 

161. 

schools,  9-10 

Vaus,  John,  186. 

at  ^t  Panl'c  and  Mer- 

V6rsril  Polydore   44. 

chant  Taylors',  109-10,  137, 

Vimon't,  M.,  236.' 

139,  141-2. 

Virgil,  43-4,  94-5,  110-11,  284. 

300 


Index. 


Vitellius,  Cornelius,  244. 
Vives,  Ludovlcus,  118. 
Vocabularies,  27  et  seq. 
polyglot,  153-4. 


WAKES,  192, 
WuU-s,  131,  233. 
Walker,  William,  158. 
Walter  de  Biblesworth,  35. 
Wapping,  156. 
Warwickshire,  60, 19'j. 
AVatling  Street,  114. 
Wax  candles  taken  by  boys 

to  school,  109,  137.  - 
Waynflete.    early  school  at, 

11. 

Bishop,  11,  85. 

Welsh  Grammar,  233. 
Wem,  Salop,  181. 
Westbury,  Lord  Chancellor 

281,  note. 
Westminster,  17. 
School.  21,  132. 

Grammar,  160. 

West  Point  School,  U.  S.,  17. 
White,  Thomas,  159. 

Sir  Thomas,  138. 

Whitsun-ales.  11)2. 


Whittinton,   Robert,  39.  Vi. 

60-8,    81-2,    94,    96-9,  122, 
186,  222. 

his  series    of    gram- 
matical treatises  described 
60-6. 

Winchester  School,  137. 
Wines,  256. 
Withals,  John,  228-9. 
Wit  ton  School,  near  Chester 

183. 

Wolfe.  Reginald,  127. 
Wolsey ,  Cardinal,  107, 119-20. 
Wolverhampton.  /1()7. 
Women,    education    of,     4, 

195-208. 

notices  of,  77. 

Word-books,  27  ct  scq. 
Writing,  175-7. 

books,  abundance  of, 

175. 


XENOPHON,  254. 


ZENOBIA,    Queen    Elizabeth 
preferred  to,  231. 


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